This question is directed toward British and Commonwealth members, who presumably are in the best position to answer it:

I have in my possession a lovely little H&H rook rifle, a break action, double under lug model, originally 297/250 caliber, but later relined to .22 lr, as pictured on page 62 of Austyn's Modern Sporting Guns. The rifle has been mutilated by having the stock shortened, the barrel shortened, and seven holes drilled in the rib, two of which have been inexpertly plugged, and one of which is out of line with the others. I have had the rifle for over 30 years, and have been in a quandry over what to do with it.

My question is this: how large a cartridge and how much pressure was this action desgned to handle? The action is certainly overkill for the puny cartridge it was manufactured for, but would it be limited to something on the order of .22 Hornet, or could it accomodate a .22 Savage HiPower or .25-35 Winchester, for example?

Then a question for the American members: who in this country is qualified to carry out the conversion on this nice little rifle?