Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Push Feed Win Model 70 in 300 H&H - Opinions?

Some years back there was a box full worth of plated, once-fired .375 H&H brass laying on the ground at my range. I picked it up and still have it even though I don't - and probably never will - have a rifle chambered for that round. My preference, in fact, would be a .375 Ruger if I ever choose to buy a .375 bolt rifle.

Practicality is also why the .300 H&H has such little appeal to me. Yes, as others have pointed out, it feeds slicker than snot. (Yawn.) Brass for the .300H&H is about 2-1/2 times more expensive than .300WM and there are fewer options. Midwayusa.com currently lists 5 types of .300WM brass as in stock with only 2 types for the .300H&H. The story on loaded ammo is about the same with loaded .300H&H ammo costing about 3 times as much as for the .300WM and much more limited in both options and supply. Midwayusa.com currently lists 47 types of .300WM ammo in stock, almost 8 times more than the 6 types in stock for the .300H&H.

For handloaders or aficionados none of this matters much, and that is OK. If I had a shotgun I didn’t want I might trade for it myself. From a purely practical standpoint though, I don’t see the value. The .300H&H won’t do anything useful that a .300WM can’t do as well or better and as a handloader with multiple .30 rifles from .300BLK to .300WM, there isn’t much of a niche left anywhere in the middle. Practicality only goes so far though and scratching an itch is a perfectly valid reason to buy a particular item, be it a rifle or something else. If the OP likes the rifle I hope he gets it and gets a lifetime of enjoyment out of it.

I bet gun nuts from back when would like to have their pre-64 .300 Wby's back in original .300 H&H configuration. Punching the M-70 H&H to Wby was popular back in the day.

Not too many rounds cycle slicker than an H&H, .300 or .375.

DF

It's been kicking around for awhile BSA. Haven't done a whole lot with it yet to be honest. I'll post it up over there though.

I like the rifle, metals pretty good, functions nicely. Stocks refinished but pretty decently done. It's a elk rifle so it's not likely to stay in that stock anyhow, but I'll keep at it a little at a time. For the pure P64 guy it's a travesty, to me, it was a score. I like the 300 WBY and I love P64's....

Hey, throw that one in a McMillan and rock on. It will take care of elk almost as well as your favorite elk rifle... . I'm liking that one.. and if the diminished collectability of the rifle bothers you that much, next time you are down visiting your buddy in Lyle look me up. I'll take it off your hands... . Not much that rifle can't handle with 84 grains of IMR7828 and 180gr. Nosler partitions...

Redneck, the casings of the 300 H&H will not last as long as a comparable 300 win mag or its ballistic twin, the 300 WSM. Pretty plain and simple fu cking truth, that may be hard to swallow.

Redneck: My experience with the .300 H&H brass coincides with yours. I neck size minimally and bolt closes with very slight resistance. After a number of firings, a full-length size may be required. I've never counted the number of times a case can be loaded, but it's comparable with other rifle brass.

Just guessing, but I'd say full-length sizing after each firing would limit case life to four or five loadings, particularly if a stout load is used.

Thought I would update this thread.

The owner of the H&H traded it to someone else that I know and that I ran into last night at a mutual friend's place. The new owner evidently didn't realize the difference in a 300 H&H and a 300 Win Mag either. He tried to load a Win Mag cartridge and it wouldn't fit. He looked down the barrel and saw what he thought was the brass ring of a casing that had separated from the head and gotten stuck in the chamber. Instead of confirming this with a gunsmith, he decided he could get it out himself. He proceeded to run a tap up in the chamber intending to screw it into the brass casing and pull it out but it wouldn't come out. After he told me this story I offered to take the rifle to my gunsmith and see if he could get it out, if that was indeed the problem. I didn't tell him what I feared he had done.

After a quick look by my gunsmith today, he confirmed that there was no brass in the chamber and the chamber was ruined. Re-barreling is about the only option.

The rifle is indeed an XTR model, stamped on the barrel, and it is pristine other than the ruined chamber. Expensive lesson for him!

Ohhh, that's gonna leave an impression with the new owner. I'll bet he wishes he never tried to do that.

I wonder if he could punch it to .300 Rum or .30 Nosler and clean the chamber up?

I hope it costs him to be stupid.