As promised here is Part I of my report of the Holland & Holland factory visit, with of course some pictures of my "in-build" Royal Double Rifle in .500NE.

The Holland & Holland factory on Harrow Road London was built by Henry Holland in 1898 and externally hasn't really changed a great deal since that time. Although modern technology has brought some improvements to production techniques again surprisingly little has changed over the last 100 years. H&H make every metal component of their guns in-house and all stock work and finishing is also done here. Indeed it is the painstaking attention to details that really impressed me with the duration of most tasks taking weeks and moths rather than hours or days. It takes 1000 man hours to build a H&H Double Rifle and that investment in time by highly-skilled craftsman makes for a fabulous end product.

Rather than write pages of words, I'll post some photos (all taken with the permission of H&H) with brief explanations.

Every action starts its life looking like this.

Then after some machining looks like this.

A .500NE blank showing chopper lump construction. Lumps are top and bottom for most calibres now to allow for left or right barrel location.

A .700 H&H blank.

4-bore anyone?

A barrel being rifled.

Rifling parameters.

We then moved into stocking where I was to set eyes on my newly stocked Royal for the first time. It was a nervous moment, especially because the stock proportions were quite different from the usual design with a 15 3/4" LOP and extended pistol grip, amongst other changes. I need not have been concerned.

Beautiful. The pad will be covered with black leather to ensure it doesn't snag on clothing.

To say I'm pleased would be an understatement. Only another 6 months to wait before it's finished!

I'll post the 2nd part of the factory tour with more pictures as soon as I have a little more time.