Forums.NitroExpress.com

This was one of those Friday afternoon decisions. Had enough of work so just before I log off let’s check some gun sites to see what is for sale.

After seeing lots of photos and having a good discussion with the owner I was paying a deposit. That initial research revealed a 240 H&H that had been extensively customized by Geoff Wilkins who was one of Australia’s better known engravers who unfortunately passed away a number of years ago. From what I could tell and see it had a new stock, the bottom metal and trigger guard (probably new) had been extensively engraved, and the barrel had been re-finished. A week or two later and it was in my hands and the next challenge was to get it to shoot eg. what load to use, cannot get .245 projectiles so probably need to bump .243, etc. Fortunately I have a mate in Brisbane who has extensive knowledge of Brit guns and he also owns a 240 take-down. As soon as he saw the gun the bump dies were put away and out came the Borescope. What that revealed was a fairly pristine barrel. Next step was the Cerrosafe and that revealed a .242 bore. So given margins of error it looks as if it has had a new .243 barrel fitted. I contacted H&H and they assured me that given the building tolerances and proofing requirements it was not possible for a 240 Apex to be built with that barrel bore. I know we have posts on here where others have commented that some 240 Apex’s had varying barrels. H&H also advised a build date of 1953 however no other details were written up in the ledger. They also noted that they would not have engraved the barrel “Holland’s” although this is a name they call themselves internally. I think what they are saying here is that the barrel would say “Holland & Holland”. See my last picture of another 240 from another site – it also says “Holland’s” so I believe they are wrong here. From what I can see the front and rear sights look correct so they would have been transplanted. I would have thought that the butt trap would be more of a continental rather than English feature.

Even after a lot of internet checks I cannot find out much about Geoff Wilkins. I contacted a well-known Australian stockmaker who had heard of the gun and he believes that Geoff also did the woodwork. The original owner said that it had been sitting in his safe unused for years. I have only managed to get it to the range once and an initial load of 46 gn of AR2213sc behind a 100 gn .243 projectile saw me average 2,815 fps. I believe that the .240 Apex was coming out of a 28 inch barrel at approx. 2,900 fps. My load showed some promise so when I have more time I will play around with it and the OAL. It is not scoped and my eyes are not what they were so we will see however a near new barrel should produce good results.

As has been said before this can be a tough crowd however I am putting up this post more out of general interest and also to get some feedback (good or bad / love or hate). Also if you have any information about Geoff Wilkins or knew of this gun please feel free to say so. Any other comments are appreciated. I am happy with this gun so I am not looking for vindication. I would like to think that a good example of a 240 Apex was not hacked about to produce this gun. In other words maybe the stock was crappy or split and the barrel was buggered.

Rick

The barrel markings on the other 240. See next post