Forums.NitroExpress.com

As a newcomer to this forum, let me first say that I’m very happy to be in your company. After finding NitroExpress.com a few days ago, I’ve been reading posts as a “guest” before joining and have gleaned more good information about double rifles from this site than any other source I’ve found. You guys obviously know your stuff.

I’m even happier to say that after a lifelong, but until recently unfulfilled love affair with double rifles, I’m finally an owner. Hopefully, I’ll have as many years left to carry it as I spent wanting it!

My rifle is a scalloped boxlock 300 H&H by Ludwig Borovnik, and dates to 1951. It has double set triggers, ejectors, a single leaf rear, good wood, tasteful scroll engraving with a very good bear just forward of the trigger guard, and is topped with a vintage steel-tubed Weaver K4. The bores are perfect and it’s about 95% overall.

I couldn’t be happier with the caliber. I’ve researched the round and have learned that it dates to the 1920s, is a .375 H&H case necked down to .308, and was developed by Holland and Holland as a hot round for thin-skinned dangerous game. In a 10.5 pound well-balanced rifle, the recoil isn’t bad at all. But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

What amazes me is how accurate this rifle is. From a rest, it shoots right/left groups of one-half inch at 100 yards. The catch is, it likes the old stuff — 220 grain Winchester Silvertips or Remington mushrooms from the same era the gun was made. It’s obviously regulated for that load. 150s and 180s of the same manufacture and period produce three-inch groups.

Nothing else I’ve found (I’m not a handloader, but willing) is nearly as accurate as the old 220s. I’ve been haunting “GunBroker” and “Auction Arms” and can find it there occasionally, but (like everything else that old) it’s getting harder to come by. I’ve laid in a pretty good supply but it won’t last forever.

My question, then, regards custom ammo. Who can/would custom load ammunition to match the ballistics of a 1950s 220-grain Winchester round in 300 H&H?

The apparent obsolescense of the 300 H&H makes me like it even better. Nobody seems to know (or care) much about it. I’ve even done a phrase search for “300 H&H” on this site, and got NO results. Is there another owner of a double in this caliber out there? I’ll appreciate any and all discussion on the 300 H&H — your experiences, ballistics, history, viability in a safari arsenal, use on North American big game, etc. Also, any information on the maker Borovnik (Ferlach Guild, Austria) would be helpful.

I’ll probably never get to Africa, but my rifle has already proven itself on whitetails here in Mississippi. Hogs are next. And hopefully, I’ll go west one season soon and put a bull elk in its sights.

Thanks for your time, your responses, and this place for double rifle enthusiasts.

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Tom
Oxford, Mississippi USA

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." — Benjamin Franklin, 1759