We checked zero on the runway--hardly a perfect range setup, but it had seemed to me that Steve Hornady's .375 Ruger shot very well, and it seemed to me that both of these did also. Certainly, they were good enough to go hunting with, and that's exactly what we did.

A new wrinkle on the Ruger M77 in .375 Ruger is this sturdy, visible fixed-blade rear sight, a vast improvement over the folding-leaf sight long supplied on the M77 Mk II.

Once again, there should be no surprise in what a cartridge that slightly exceeds a .375 H&H should do on game, provided the bullets perform. The Hornady bullets--on this hunt, fast 270-grain Interlocks and deep-penetrating 300-grain FMJs--performed perfectly, and thus the cartridge did as well. Game taken ranged from warthog and bushbuck on up through sable and waterbuck, then up again to buffalo and crocodile.

Perhaps the most spectacular example was, at least to my eye, Ken Jorgensen's buffalo. We got on that herd in late afternoon, with very little time for finesse. They quickly found a good bull in the middle of the herd, but other buffalo covered him up, and as the afternoon melted away he refused to come clear for a shot. Ken and J.P. maneuvered as long as they could, but when the sun was almost setting they used the standard last-light field-expedient tactic of charging into the herd, hoping the bull they'd selected would do the right thing.

He did. The herd spooked, of course, as they often do in the evening. They pulled up short, and, luckily, the bull they wanted turned and gave them a clear frontal shot. Ken and J.P. had already put on the brakes and put up the shooting sticks, so when the bull faced them Ken gave him a perfect frontal shot with a 270-grain Interlock.

The author's left-hand Ruger M77 Mk II in .375 Ruger groups very acceptably with the 270-grain Hornady Interlock. This particular rifle, at least so far, is actually the least accurate of the four .375 Rugers he has seen.

Most of the time a bull hit in this manner will take three or four steps forward to regain his balance, then he'll whirl and run the almost obligatory 50 or 60 yards of a buffalo hit perfectly in the chest. This bull took the bullet, tried to turn, fell over and didn't get back up. Absent a spine shot, this truly is as good as it gets and is a very rare thing to observe.

On plains game the .375 Ruger continued its spectacular performance, but that should also not be a surprise. Since 1912 the .375 H&H has provided one of the finest one-rifle safari batteries available, and in a shorter, lighter, handier rifle with a .30-06-length action the .375 Ruger will do the same.

Wayne Holt shot a very fine sable, also at last light. Sable are extremely tough, and this bull was in a big herd. I wasn't worried, but I was definitely concerned; if he didn't get him down on the spot, we would have a hard time finding him before morning. No worries--Wayne shot him very well, and the .375 Ruger literally threw him to the ground.

On another afternoon I used Wayne's rifle to take a lovely waterbuck. The bull had been bedded during the stalk, but just as we got in range and got set, he got up and faced me. This animal, too, folded to a frontal shot with the 270-grain Interlock.