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Matabele
.300 member


Reged: 16/09/10
Posts: 230
Loc: Zimbabwe
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: bwanabobftw]
      #270712 - 20/09/15 02:04 AM

Magnificent gun! It would be great to see a hunt report as and when you are able to use it in the field.

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jorge
.275 member


Reged: 13/07/05
Posts: 88
Loc: Orange Park, Florida
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: bwanabobftw]
      #274481 - 04/12/15 03:46 AM

Lovely rifle, sir. I've always wanted a double in 303 in my collection. Right now, all I have is a 1916 manufactured Winchester Model 95 in 303 Brit that I load 215gr Woodleighs behind 41grs of RL-15 @2150 fps. Shoots clean through both shoulders of any hogs here in South Georgia. I'm interested in your load, have you chronographed it? jorge

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CptCurlAdministrator
.450 member


Reged: 01/05/04
Posts: 5268
Loc: Fincastle, Botetourt County, V...
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: jorge]
      #274627 - 06/12/15 02:17 AM

Quote:

. . . I'm interested in your load, have you chronographed it? jorge




I had a range session with this rifle yesterday. My old supply of IMR4895 ran out and was replaced with 16 lbs. from another lot. So I did the right thing and did a fine-tune adjustment of my pet load, using the new powder. I tried loads of 37.5 grains, 38.0 grains, and 38.5 grains.

With this new lot of powder I found that my best load is now 38.0 grains with a Fed 210 primer and the Woodleigh 215. My OAL is 3.063", which seats the base of this bullet right at the bottom of the neck.

It's a wonderful load, and my rifle loves it. My average velocity of 8 rounds yesterday clocked 2175 fps.

Here's a look at my target, with the chronograph printout:





Only seven shots are on the target. I am embarrassed to admit that as noted, my first shot out of the right barrel barely grazed one of the screens of my chronograph, causing it to fly wide of the target. It's velocity did register, though. I re-adjusted the chronograph screens!

My group measures approximately 1-5/8", and the two barrel groups indicate the barrels are shooting parallel. It's hard to see on this scan, but the three shots on the right are the right barrel group, and the four shots to the left are the left barrel group.

If you are wondering, the notation at the top of the chronograph tape, beside the load data, 3.270", has to do with my powder measure setting.

I also see, that as for these 8 shots (four from each barrel) the left barrel clocks slightly faster than the right. The right averages 2162, and the left 2189. This would have to be repeated many times to draw any conclusions.

Curl


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jorge
.275 member


Reged: 13/07/05
Posts: 88
Loc: Orange Park, Florida
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: CptCurl]
      #274688 - 07/12/15 06:05 AM

Thank you, sir. Very nice grouping. Makes for a PERFECT hog rifle!

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gryphon
.450 member


Reged: 01/01/03
Posts: 5487
Loc: Sambar ground/Victoria/Austral...
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: jorge]
      #274696 - 07/12/15 09:08 AM

November has gone..did you do a Whitetail with the double?

--------------------
Get off the chair away from the desk and get out in the bush and enjoy life.


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gwh
.333 member


Reged: 28/01/08
Posts: 277
Loc: Cairns Australia
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: bwanabobftw]
      #274709 - 07/12/15 10:30 PM

Beautiful

--------------------
Hunt hard, shoot straight

"I speak of Africa and golden joys; the joy of wandering through lonely lands; the joy of hunting the mighty and terrible lords of the wilderness, the cunning, the wary and the grim"

Theodore Roosevelt, Khartoum, 1910


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4seventy
Sponsor


Reged: 07/05/03
Posts: 2210
Loc: Queensland Australia
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: CptCurl]
      #274741 - 08/12/15 12:34 PM

Oh yeah, very nice indeed!
A beautiful rifle in superb condition has found a very good home.
Looks like it shoots the way it should too!
Well done Roscoe.


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DarylS
.700 member


Reged: 10/08/05
Posts: 26413
Loc: Beautiful British Columbia, Ca...
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: CptCurl]
      #274747 - 08/12/15 12:51 PM

Quote:

In May of this year I happened upon this most delightful double rifle and was fortunate to bring it into the fold.

It is a Holland & Holland, completed January 15, 1901 a week before Queen Victoria's death. Although the H&H flagship at that time was the Royal Hammerless Ejector, this rifle was ordered as a toplever, back-action hammer rifle. Let me remind you that there still was suspicion and doubt about the hammerless guns and rifles at the turn of the 20th century. The "old timers" believed hammerless guns to be unsafe. Nobody would walk around carrying a gun or rifle with the hammers back, but that's exactly what is going on with the new hammerless weapons.

So here we see a rifle built as what was then an obsolete design, and chambered for arguably the most modern British cartridge of the day.

This rifle is absolutely superb. It has seen little use and remains in excellent original condition. Its bores are virtually new. It resides in its original case.

Regulated for the original 215 grain .303 load, it still is wonderfully accurate with my present-day load of 38.5 grains of IMR4895, a Woodleigh 215 grain bullet, and a Federal 210 primer.

So here it is.




































































































I am SPEECHLESS! - Well not quite. That's ANOTHER I must shoot when Tracy and I visit.

--------------------
Daryl


"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V


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buckbrush
.300 member


Reged: 23/08/07
Posts: 120
Loc: Alberta
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: DarylS]
      #274751 - 08/12/15 01:24 PM

Beautiful, interestingly no Top Bolting?

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CptCurlAdministrator
.450 member


Reged: 01/05/04
Posts: 5268
Loc: Fincastle, Botetourt County, V...
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: gryphon]
      #274773 - 09/12/15 12:36 AM

Quote:

November has gone..did you do a Whitetail with the double?




I did bag a nice whitetail, but not with this rifle. I'm embarrassed to admit using a Winchester Model 70 this fall.

I will say that the previous five deer I killed in past years were all killed with double rifles and express sights.

My hunt this year involved a little too much opportunity to rough up a rifle.

--------------------
RoscoeStephenson.com

YOUR DOUBLE RIFLE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND.



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NitroXAdministrator
.700 member


Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 39058
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: CptCurl]
      #274778 - 09/12/15 12:55 AM

Quote:



I’m curious to know whether anybody has encountered another Holland & Holland double rifle similar to this one. I’m not asking about H&H hammer rifles from the black powder era. I’m asking about any nitro rifles built on this toplever back action hammer pattern. I don’t recall seeing another just like this one.





I would guess it was from an era of transition between hammer firearms and "hammerless". And possibly a client wanted good old fashioned hammers on his rifle.

Read somewhere where a maker made a batch or hammer rifles for some time.

Now if many people today still want a shotgun or rifle with hammers, how much more prevalent would that have been in the early 1900's.

Bloody lovely rifle, case and excellent acquisition.

--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"


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Rule303
.416 member


Reged: 05/07/09
Posts: 4896
Loc: Woodford Qld
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: NitroX]
      #274823 - 09/12/15 07:11 PM

Well done on that find and some excellent shooting Captain. I would not hesitate to use that gun out to 300 mts if my eyesight allowed that with open sights.

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OahuKaneohe
.275 member


Reged: 03/12/08
Posts: 98
Loc: Hawaii, Oahu, Kaneohe
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: bwanabobftw]
      #328838 - 26/05/19 05:32 AM

I have his brother serial 17,518. Pics to come.

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Ripp
.577 member


Reged: 19/02/07
Posts: 16072
Loc: Montana, USA
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: OahuKaneohe]
      #328849 - 26/05/19 11:48 AM

That's a really great rifle..

--------------------
ALL MEN DIE, BUT FEW MEN TRULY LIVE..


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HeymSR20
.300 member


Reged: 23/11/11
Posts: 243
Loc: Scotland
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: Ripp]
      #331011 - 10/08/19 08:04 AM

Lovely rifle. I note the instructions on the case lable to fir a couple of shots from a clean and oiled barrel before using on game. No arguments there.

But to ensure ease of extraction “its a good plan to lightly grease the chambers”.

Modern day view is tye chamber walls should be free of any lubricant so the case can grip the walls - a process call obturation - and this lessens the pressure on the breech face.


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TH44
.375 member


Reged: 21/02/09
Posts: 731
Loc: West UK
Re: Holland & Holland .303 Hammer Double Rifle [Re: HeymSR20]
      #331013 - 10/08/19 08:22 AM

Beautiful rifle, excellent in all respects, the most ornate Rose and Scroll engraving is better IMHO than the "overdone" engraving of more modern rifles

Interesting is the use of the earlier of flat hammers, and the fact that at that date H&H were buying in the locks from Joseph Brazier for their best rifles, although probably only for the hammer rifles which at that time were being increasingly overtaken by hammerless rifles

As usual, good luck in your shooting Curl

TH


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