From massive brown bears, to predators and varmints, African dangerous game and everything in between, this round gets the job done worldwide.

I love hunting firearms, especially beautifully wood-stocked, accurate bolt action and single-shot rifles. I personally have never been a big user of semi-auto guns for hunting; however, I fully support those who choose such firearms. Perhaps my choices and preferences are because I grew up in an era when blued steel and pretty walnut guns were appreciated and loved and handed down to the next generation. Those performed well and did all we asked of them. To me they continue doing so, even in today’s world of great accuracy at distances near and far. When it comes to finding the one round to hunt worldwide, there is much to consider.

I fully understand the versatility of stainless steel and stocks made of what I teasingly call “plastic and fancy plywood.”  I do own and use several rifles with synthetic and laminated stocks. They have served me extremely well in harsh, wet terrain and climates. I see the stainless steel/synthetic stocked firearms as specialty guns. I have used them hunting coastal Alaska for monstrous brown and grizzly bears, as well as Sitka blacktail deer where salty mist and saltwater are a daily occurrence.  But I have also used wood-stocked and blued steel rifles in these same weather conditions. When hunting with those, I simply wipe them down when the day’s hunt is over. Stainless steel and synthetic stocked guns, too, need care when hunting in wet and salty conditions.

I tend to subscribe to the old saw, “Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gun!”  But I also realize beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder.

I am so very glad and proud we live in the U.S.A. where we are not restricted to owning only one or at best very few firearms.

Some of my favorite rounds are the .257 Roberts, .270 Win., .280 Rem., .280 Ackley Improved, 7×57 (.275 Rigby), .308 Win., .30-’06, .300 H&H Mag., .300 Win. Mag., .375 H&H Mag., .375 Ruger, .405 Win., .416 Rigby, .416 Ruger and .450-400 NE 3”, to name a few.  As you will notice, most of my choices have been around for a while. They are tried and proven rounds. I have used them on hunts throughout the world for game the size of diminutive dik-diks to gargantuan elephants in Africa, and on a wild variety of game large and small in Europe, Australia, South America and, of course, North America.

In choosing one particular round, it comes down to hunting with one that is powerful enough to bring down elephant, hippo, buffalo, eland, lion, Alaskan brown bear and grizzlies, moose, elk, whitetails and mule deer, reindeer and caribou, roe deer, ibex, sheep and numerous species of antelope. Such a round must be accurate at distances near and at least out to 500 yards. It must be one that is fun to shoot, and one in which the shooter has to have great confidence. Yet another consideration is ammo availability, be I near a large metropolitan city or a small gun shop a long way from any major town.

Had I been asked this question ten or more years ago, my answer would have been different than today. My choice back then would have the the venerable .375 H&H Mag., although perhaps stretching the barrel to 500 yards would have come down to truly knowing my rifle and my capabilities with it! Close behind would have been the .300 Win. Mag., followed by the .30-’06.  The main reason for those is that that are time proven and ammo is available just about any and everywhere.

The .375 Ruger: The Round to Hunt the World

But that was then. Today my choice for one round with which to hunt the world is…the .375 Ruger. I have used my Ruger M77s in African, SAAM/FTW Hunter and Guide Rifles versions throughout the world. In North America I have shot near 11-feet squared brown bear, numerous elk and mule deer and many whitetails, as well as predators and varmints with the .375 Ruger. I have used these same rifles in Africa on elephant, hippo, numerous buffalo, lion, eland and variety of plains game down to klipspringer and blue duiker.

In Australia I have used my .375 Ruger on huge Asian buffalos. In Europe I have used my .375 Rugers on roe deer, mouflon, fallow deer, red stag, reindeer and alpine ibex. My choices of ammunition on these hunts were Hornady 250-grain GMX and 300-grain DGX and DGS commercial loads, primarily the 300-grain DGX. I have never felt neither under- nor over-gunned with the .375 Ruger, regardless of where or what I hunted.

Admittedly, before going on those hunts I spent time at the FTW/SAAM ranges shooting out to 500 yards. There, I learned the capabilities of my rifle (combo Ruger/Hornady/Trijicon) at ranges near and far.

My most distant shot at game (not paper or steel plates) was at a waterbuck in Uganda while hunting with Tim Fallon from the FTW Ranch. Tim ranged the monstrous waterbuck at just shy of 400 yards. Using a range card prepared for me while I was going through the FTW’s Sportsman All-Weather All-Terrain Marksmanship training, I made the appropriate turret adjustment for bullet drop and then allowed for the slight wind blowing from left to right.  At the shot, I could see the bullet hit the old bull squarely in the shoulder. The waterbuck ran forward, disappeared momentarily behind a bush, then ran back out from behind it and dropped essentially in the tracks where it had stood when I pulled the trigger.

Hunting roe deer in Sweden, the buck we stalked spooked and ran, but then stopped at 380 yards. Knowing the rifle and the Hornady load, I was able to bring it down with one shot.  Was I over-gunned? I do not think so! Two years before I had used my .375 Ruger to take an ancient alpine ibex in Austria, at a distance of more than 300 yards. These same stories could be told about many different game animals from dangerous game on down regarding hunting with the .375 Ruger.

Back a few years ago, I would have been concerned about the availability of .375 Ruger ammo in distant places. In my hunting travels on four continents I have made it a point to stop by gun stores to determine if indeed .375 Ruger ammo was available. Hornady commercial loads have been there every time I have asked.

To me, the .375 Ruger round, chambered in a Ruger M77, or for that matter in a Ruger No. 1 (which I recently purchased two of), is the one caliber and round I would choose, if I could only have one with which to hunt the world. The round is extremely accurate and delivers considerable down range energy. It has certainly has proven itself to me, many times over!