So I’m considering a .375 H&H. Iv narrowed it down to either a CZ or a Winchester. Anyone have either?

I have the Winchester Classic Stainless. Does everything it should as far as functional and accurate. Not too impressed with the synthetic stock but it’s built for a bad weather gun. I would have preferred the CZ as I’m a big fan of all their guns, but the Winny came to me on a favorable trade deal with a ton of ammo.
I had a friend who’s really into 375 give me some mild “deer” level reloads and got to see the versatility of this cartridge first hand. At this point I don’t think that I’d have the opportunity to fully utilize a gun like this but it’s nice to know I’m ready if the situation would arise. Definitely fun to shoot.

I’ve had both. The CZ is a very large rifle for caliber but workable. The Winchester is good too, there’s more weight in the barrel.

I’m leaning towards the Alaskan model, because I just like the idea of iron sights weather practical or not I still like the idea.
I have a CZ 550FS in 6.5X55 and love it.

I just went through this thought process over the last few months. It's probably one of the most versatile cartridges out there and the legal minimum you can use on some species in Africa.

With just load selection, .375 H&H can be used for deer, pigs, all bear species, elk, moose, African plains game and dangerous game. You can load reduced recoil loads with Trailboss for practice.

I settled on a Winchester Model 70 Safari. They were OOS everywhere recently, so I found a late New Haven gun on GB. (Of course, right after I did, they came back in stock at Hinterland and Impact Guns.) I'm going to run a Trijicon TR25 1-6 on it with QD rings. I have been running this scope for 3-gun for a few years on an M4 from close-in to 500 yards. I have something like 32 lbs of IMR4350 and a ton of WLRM primers, so I'm good there. Bullets aren't bad, but brass is hard to find. I found some ammo at the local shops which had likely been on the shelf pre-panic and wasn't marked up at all.

The new FN built guns are reportedly superb. From what I was reading, CZ stopped making the magnum cartridge guns.

I've had multiple of both the CZ 550 and Winchester Model 70 in safari cartridges.

Here are my thoughts on them...

The CZ rifles are very rugged, and very accurate.  With them you play what I call the wood lottery.  You either get really nice wood with tiger striping in it, or some mediocre looking flat brown walnut.  The iron sights are cool because you have 2 elevation settings on the rear sight for 200 and 300 yards.  Barrels are cold hammer forged and will last forever, and they are a bit thin..  The actions on them are very strong, but they are very rough and gritty.  I wouldn't take one DG hunting out of the box because the actions feed like shit depending on the cartridge.  With the 375 H&H  and 416 Rigby they mostly feed well, but the straight wall rounds like the .458 Lott and .458 Win Mag feed like shit and can jam up the action if you're not paying attention to how you run the bolt.  A lot of people acknowledge you have to send them out to get some work done on them to get them up to snuff.  The magazines are large.  The 375 and 458 models hold 5 rounds, and the Rigby holds 4 I believe.

The Winchester is the better rifle all around aside from a few areas.  The Winchester has a much, much smoother action.  It has adjustable irons which are nice, but not the express style irons like the CZ with the 200 and 300 yard elevation flip ups.  The newer barrels are button rifled and not hammer forged anymore, but that doesn't really matter with a safari round as you'll likely never shoot out the barrel.  The CZ is the more accurate rifle of two, but again, they're safari rifles and you shouldn't be expecting a sub-MOA match gun.  The wood in general is much nicer on the M70 and the rifle, overall, just feels more premium.  But as I mention you play the wood lottery on the CZs, and you can end up with better wood on them than what is on the Winchester.  I also like the 3 position safety on the Winchester way more than the 2 position safety on the CZ.  The Winchester also has a barrel band sling mount if that makes a difference.

If this gun is just for plinking and having fun then get the CZ.  It will serve you perfectly well.

If you plan on hunting with it and actually using it hard, or just want the better gun in general get the Winchester.

With CZ getting out of the safari rifle game the only CRF offering left in a "budget" friendly price range in regard to safari rifles is the Model 70.  My bet is the prices get inflated on them a bit now as well and they become even harder to find.

Love my M70s

If you go CZ, send it here to be reworked

https://hunting-rifles.com/home/

Yeah, I agree.  

Out of the box a CZ 550, or an old BRNO 602 (if you can find one), is a rough bugger, but they're also tough, durable, and really accurate DGRs.

With minimal upgrades   -  such as reforming the 'hog-back' stock, adding a Pachmyr decelerator pad and a 3-position/M70-style safety   -  they'll actually be better over time than a stock and typically pricier Win M70.

Plus, the 550s and 602s in .375 H&H hold 5 rds down + 1 in the chamber. For hunting in the U.S. lower 48, that level of capacity is irrelevant.  But for hunting in Africa, and maybe if hunting the Grizzes and brownies in AK, it's comforting to have that much on-tap firepower.

Not sure I agree there.  The factory recoil pad on the CZ is already really good.  I've put a Decelerator on one to see how it does and the difference is very negligible.  The three position safety upgrades are expensive... the AHR and Gentry options are both over $200.  At that point you're having to upgrade the gun and it's going to start costing more than a Model 70 which is already the better gun OOTB in most regards.

The Model 70 actions are just so much smoother that unless you send a 550 in to get an action job it won't be as smooth as a Model 70 even over time just shooting the gun.  Over the years I've owned multiple 550s: two 375, one 416 Rigby, and two 458 Lott; and multiple Model 70s just in Safari configuration: one 375, two 416s.

I say that as a huge CZ fan (you can even see under my profile pic).  If I was offered a modified CZ 550 Magnum and a Model 70 Safari, I'd take the CZ 550 all day.  The issue is a CZ modified to get up to snuff against just a factory Model 70 has you nearing $2,000.  By modification I mean action job, barrel band sling, and the three position safety.  

I do agree that they're insanely tough, though.  I remember a guy on Africa Hunting talk about hosting a DGR shooting comp.  The CZ was performing better than rifles two to three times as expensive.  The guy running it said the only guns that really kept running and running after a ton of shooting with no failures were the CZ 550 and Ruger No. 1 rifles chambered in safari cartridges.

Wayne at AHR does great work and is the only gunsmith I’ve ever met that can give you a schedule and then meet it.

Yeah, Wayne at AHR is really talented and knows big-bore DGRs of all calibers inside and out. Plus he's a super nice guy. Very responsive to questions.

The .375 Brno 602 I referred to above is mine. I had it customized back in the mid-'90s by an equally talented rifle-smith named Lon Paul of Tanglewood.

Lon's BRNO 602 'conversions' on the .375 and 458WM models made him sort of famous in DGR circles back then,  and there were a few articles written about him and his work that appeared in Rifle magazine and some others gun 'zines of the time.

Basically he developed a standard checklist of 'upgrades' to the BRNOs that, when completed, had them looking and handling more like highly refined DGR rifles in the British tradition.

The biggest thing was re-working the profile of the Euro 'hog-back' stock (which included re-checkering the grip and foreend) and adding the Pachmyr buttpad, two upgrades which completely changed the recoil characteristics of the rifle. There was also adding a  3-pos. safety, a barrel-banded sling mount, polishing the feed-ramp (if needed), and a great trigger job. I don't have Lon's checklist in front of me, but he did more to it than that, like adding an ebony piece on the stock's foreend.

Wayne at AHR did/does essentially the same thing with the CZ 550s, depending on how much the client wants to spend.  Unlike Lon's standardized checklist of BRNO work, however, Wayne's approach to an out-of-the-box CZ 550 was to offer the client three 'stages' or levels of upgrades, from the basic stuff to the more detailed (and thus pricier) custom work.

Cost-wise, if I recall correctly, my BRNO cost me (back in the early '90s) like $500 from a local FFL. Lon's BRNO 'conversion' upgrades totaled me about $1600.00 Again, that's back in the '90s.

So after all these years and a lot of shooting pleasure, I've got roughly $2100.00 in the gun, which is spit in the bucket compared to what a .375 H&H rifle of similar quality would cost today.

Lon Paul is talented too.

By the way, ... for anyone who's got a DGR they were *thinking* about possibly upgrading with various mods one day, Wayne @ AHR reports that he's discontinued offering his series of CZ 550 upgrade 'packages' due to the volume of custom work, but he's found a group of talented rifle-smiths who can continue to offer these upgrades:


More info here:

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/cz-550-upgrades-are-back.61709/