Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer -- .30-06 and .300 H&H

In regards to the 300 H&H case design...I thought Mule Deer did a super job with the article comparing it to the 300 WSM... testing was performed by Charlie Sisk, Savage Action...same weight powder charges, same bullet, same barrel, bullet seating depth the same in respect to cartridge case neck...end result, velocities & pressures nearly identical......so much for case design magic. The 300 H&H is a super cartridge and way overlooked in my book.

BF..,

No doubt I'll soon give in to the desire for a 8X57. Not so sure about round nose bullets though. I have nothing against guys who use them ......... but I'm not sure I'd want my daughter to marry some one who does!

-Bob F.

I'd love to have one of those pre-64 70's in 300 H&H, would go right nice with my 375 H&H. You can't hardly find them for sale without having to mortgage the house to be able to buy one though.

Savage 99 says he will sell you his real cheap

In 1988 I went to Botswana with a Sako Safari .375 and a Ruger 7mm Rem Magnum. The mag capacities and safeties were different which was confusing. So when I got back I sold the Ruger, got another Sako Safari, and had it barreled to .300 H&H, to give me a matched pair. I had the new barrel fluted so that when I grabbed for a gun in the back of the safari truck I would know which was which by feel. Both the Sakos had a five shot magazine and held another one in the chamber. They made an ideal set but, I am sorry to say, I never went back to Africa and I sold them off several years ago. The buyer did indeed go to Africa with them and still has them.

My father has a Remington 721 that he had restocked by Fajen back in the day. It's a beautiful rifle and strikes me as an unappreciated classic. I'm also partial to it since it was the first centerfire rifle I ever shot! He gave in to my whining one day at the range when I was 9 years old and let me shoot it twice. Reportedly I shot well. All I remember is wanting to shoot it more and him saying doing so would be child abuse. I was proud of those bruises on my skinny little carcass!

As this thread is drifting pleasantly anyway...

I had my .300 H&H built on a Ruger 1B .30-06 NIB that I swapped for a SAKO Ultramag I won at a RMEF dinner.

It was an easy recahmber but needed a magnum extractor. Excellent rifle with acceptable recoil.

Best break and project gun idea I've ever had. A close second was to buy a lot H&H brass for it before it all disappeared.

1B

pa..,

I fell into collecting 721's a few years ago. My .300H&H is a very nice example. A joy to shoot. Recently got an original Weaver V9 back from being rebuilt which will go on it shortly - making a real neat 'heritage' piece.

Now, if I can just find a 721 in .280Remington ...

Outcast: My feable memory recalls that Remington first brought out the 280 in the M740, and then in the M725. Could be wrong but I don't think they made in 721's in 280. The 725's are nice though!

Yeah, Jack did not like the 26" barrel on his H&H, so he had it cut back to about 23.5".
He chronographed his loads at Speer and came out with about 2770 IIRC.
So he concluded that the H&H was not worth bothering with.
This info came out of Jack's Rifle Book.

I like his writings, but if someone had used a sample of "one" regarding his .270
there would have been hell to pay! He really did not give te 300 H&H a fair assesment.

Bob

For some time I been lusting for a D'Arcy Legend. And I can tell you If I ever get down to sending him a M-70 to do along with a check for 6 figuires I would think what cartridge for about 2 sec. And tell him make it a 300 H+H. I know a 300 Winchester would be more pratical, from ammo and cases on the shelve ever where you look, or a 338 Winchester because he builds a lot of rifes so chambered. Its just somthing about a 300 H+H either 180 bullets for the open and 220 's for the thorn bush that just make me feel all warm and gooy inside. ( I had a Remington 700 Classic so chambered) I know the 300 WSM come close in performace or You can do it a little better with a winnie, but dam those case's is the only thing Art deco that I like, yea is a fashion statement. But dam it the guys at Holland and Holland knew a thing or two what makes a good hunting rifle and cartridge combonation. And the 300 H+H scores bit time on both.

I see your point, but I agree (generally) with JC's conclusion that the 300 H&H does not yeild a guy very much over the 30-06.

I say this because for the same money guy could get a lot MORE of shooting practice in with this 30-06 and practice far outweighs velocity in the hunting field.

That being said, I would give up a month "nookie" for a chance to hunt Afica with a matched parir of 300 and 375 H&Hs.

BMT

Incidentally gents, just finished a range session with the new Nosler custom brass. it's expensive, but arguably the nicest, cleanes brass I've ever worked with. Winchester/Olin can pack sand for having left us in a lurch with it and 375 H&H brass. jorge

Oddly enough, O'Connor hunted a LOT with the .300 Weatherby and liked it very much--until he evidently became disenchanted with the recoil.

My own .300 H&H (built on a M70 Classic action) has a 23" Custom Barrel and Rifleworks barrel. The load I use is a 180 Partition and, if I recall correctly, 70.5 grains of H4831 for just over 3000 fps. Which beats any .30-06 I've ever shot, even those with 26" barrels, handloaded to over book max. This is actually all anyone needs this side of big dangerous game....

JB

I have a 300 H&H getting put together right now, just because I've never had a 30 mag of any sort and I have a nice M70 action kicking around.

The lack of brass kind of scared me off at first, but recently I made a pile of it by running 300 Weatherby through a 375 H&H sizing die (with the decapper stem removed), then through a 300 H&H FL sizer. Works effortlessly and brss comes out perfect, other than needing about 40 thou of trimming.

loads, be they factory or handloaded, for all centerfires have come a long ways over the last 80 years or so... temperature insensitive propellants alone give added security at the upper limits of load specs...
i have shot and loaded both the h&h and the winnie... put me down for the winnie, if you please... it is, and probably always will be, the workhorse of the fast 30s..... john w

I just finshied a history of H&H by Dallas--can't remember his first name. His book contained production records. H&H introduced their 300 Super in early 1925 but did not complete their first rifle until October 1925. I could supply the serial # if I still had the book. In many cases with their double rifles the records indicate the name of the buyer, but this was not the case with 300. The book did not mention anything about its introduction in America

If Cartridges of the World is correct, the Brits fielded a .30-06 class sporting cartridge one year before the .30-06 was developed. See the entry for the 375/303 W-R. As a rimmed cartridge, it would not have been ideal for a bolt gun, and the limited case capacity surely meant rather high pressures; both reasons were enough to develop the .300 H&H.

Years back I had a 300 win,300h&h, and 300 weatherby,all at the same time and used to shoot all three regularly to 600 yards, all with 180 Nosler Partitions and Nosler solid base bullets.This will drive people nuts (it did me), but there was really no difference in trajectory between all three clear out to 600. From a 300 yard zero,(3"+@100 yds), all three dropped 48" at 600. Net advantage of one over the other- zero.The Weatherby is fractionally faster; not enough to truly matter.

By the way, no 30/06 load can stay with a Holland. If you lean on a 30/06 to make it as fast as a Holland, you can lean on the Holland , too. Unwise in both cases.