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1.The belt of a cartridge does not make it handle higher pressures. It is strictly for headspacing. (The RUM cartridges, Lazzeronis, Lapua and WSM are not belted and operate at the highest allowable SAAMI pressures) 100% true. But while the .404 case was designed and made for 53,000 psi that nasty belted H&H case was designed and made for 64,000 psi.
2.The .400H&H offers no advantages over the .416 Ruger and the .416 Rem. How many different cartridges will you keep saying it doesn't offer an advantage over? In that line of thinking the .416 Weatherby offers an advantage over ALL of them and must be the only legitimate 40 caliber. I can name cartridges those don't offer any advantage over and I can name cartridges the .400 H&H does offer an advantage over. I can do it all day long but it won't change the fact that all the cartridges are different. They each have a specific reason for being, each have short-comings, and each have advantages when compared to other cartridges. Most obvious is that the .404 Jeffery and the .400 H&H are different calibers! They are more different than the .358 is from the 9.3mm, and as different as a .450 is from the .470. Or do you think we don't need a .450/.458 because we have the .470?
3.Making an argument for the difference in SD between a .416 and a .401 is ludicrous.
There are .410 gr and 450gr Woodleighs available for the .404 and for the .416 with higher SD(.361-371). The SD of the 400 grain .410 still bests the SD of the 410 grain .423. The fact remains that bullet weight for bullet weight a .410 will always best a .423 in SD. The existence of one 450 grain Woodleigh bullet cannot change that. Woodleigh is making a heavy for caliber bullet for the .404, something they are very good at. But if anyone were to make a 450gr .410 bullet (and they could be easily ordered from a couple of US companies) then the SD of that .410 bullet would be 0.382 vs 0.361 for the .423 bullet.
4.There is no need for a .400H&H, except to sell bespoke rifles and proprietary ammo,as it offers no real advantages. You condemn it because you don't like it. You don't like it because you associate it with "bespoke rifles and proprietary ammo", nothing more and nothing less. My rifle is a converted old Whitworth Express and others are doing similar conversions. It only takes a barrel change, a very inexpensive conversion. You've got to do a lot more than that if you want to convert a readily available mauser sporter to .416 Rigby or .404 Jeffrey, a LOT more. As far as new rifles, the largest manufacturer of rifles in .400 H&H is probably Dakota. It is a very popular chambering for them. Dakota rifles are not sold at Walmart prices but neither are they the price of a "bespoke" rifle, far from it. And the ammo is not proprietary. It can be made by any company and has been loaded by a few. Holland & Holland makes none of it. The 50 Beowulf and .416 JDJ are proprietary rounds. Not so the .400 H&H.
I respect the right of any gun owner to own whatever makes them happy without the need to denigrate well established classics or superior cartridge designs. So do I. I'm not denigrating any cartridge. You are the one doing that. You are denigrating a new design just because it is new and not an "established classic". If that was the prevailing attitude we would all be shooting .45-70 and .375 NE 2-1/2" rifles. Anyway, I see them as two different and distinct cartridges, each with their pluses and each with their minuses.
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Re: 400 H&H