Arnold: Yes, I did not want the leather-covered pad for the obvious reason - slippage. H&H did not like the idea at first but ordered a Kick-EEZ magnum pad for testing themselves in the end. It makes shooting the gun very enjoyable. And I think it does not look too bad either.

Bailey: Yes, it is Griffnee - I have always liked his 'grotesque' style. Unfortunately the dragon on the belly of the action does not come across in my picture as good as it really looks - for me, that is the highlight. The picture of the sideplates comes close, however. It was extremely hard to capture how the engraving really comes across as it is multilayered, yet plays together very well. My local gunsmith, who is Ferlach trained, remarked that he also used a special technique in the lower layers to eliminate glare (for hunting purposes). And in deed, from a little distance on, the engraving is non-reflective.

crkennedy: I have already shot it to check for regulation. Even with the scope, for which it was not regulated (I installed my own after getting it anyhow), I got groups at 50 meters (55 yards) that averaged 1 inch (both barrels / 4 shots off tripod sticks). Best group was one ragged hole. The gun loves the lot of Federal Ammo I bought. So it needs to be shot!

Also had an outing already at the biggest German 'shooting cinema'. In case you are not familiar with this: We do lots of driven shoots in Germany, hence shooting at running game. These cinemas show movies of (mostly) running boar at which you shoot with regular ammo at distances from 30 to 60 yards, depending on the cinema. A computer calculates the appropriate lead that you need to take (smaller animals is the back of the screen are computed as needing more lead therefore). Well, after your shot (or a sequence, if so desired) you see where you have hit the animal. It is very realistic and a lot of fun. Well, this new cinema I went to has a 30 by 15 feet screen, so after I asked them for 'Africa' movies, there appeared a life-size elephant from the left - boom, headshot, perfect hit. The gun also moved into the faster targets (like running zebra) as by its own. I did not expect it to work that well - however the gun has the absolute same measurements as my H&H shotgun so I could shoot it like a shotgun, without aiming, as the sights line up without the need to adjust when I mount the gun.

In 10 days I am off the Austria for a driven shoot at boar/red stag/ fallow deer and mufflon. A .470 is a bit overkill for that, but I can think of no better training for Africa, which will I do next year.