Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 300HH stateside?

Are any of the major manufacturers in the US going to load 300HH again? It's been MIA online for months now and way more obscure stuff is available. What's the deal?

I hope you see some soon...as long as they load some properly headstamped 275 Rigby first.

And they need to load some more 405 Win while they're at it.

300 H&H rifles were never made for left-handed shooters. I would have to go through a lot of extra effort to acquire a rifle that no one makes ammunition for. So why do I want one anyway?

2016-17 were good years for the ouch&ouch

I also set myself up well with H4831 and the .308/180 Sierra prohunter

Bought a thousand primers when I got the rifle, and will not use them in my time...

I hope so. I bought 500 cases 25 years ago and will have enough to pass to my kids. Not enough people know the benefits of the 300 H&H wanting modern designs instead.

We have more 300 H&H brass on order, but ETAs are really hard to nail down. When we had it last time it sold out in a matter of days.

Getting some more interesting stuff in probably the beginning of the year timeframe.

I saw you had it listed. Norma I believe. Sometimes I think of buying these historic cases to keep the manufacturers making them. I hope I don't have retire the rifle (or my kids don't) since it is a pre64 and shoots great.

The good news -- and the bad news -- is that I don't have an HH yet. But I've always wanted one. The snag being I already reload for multiple rounds and because this wouldn't get shot a ton, was hoping to go the easy route with factory stuff. Alas...

I listed some new 300 H&H Brass on here a while back. It is out of my "stash" and people were looking for it but at 1984 prices so I just put it back away.

Odonata, I have TONS of 405 WCF in original boxes but I have no way of shipping ammo anymore with the recent changes in UPS and FEDEX.

HSM loads it.
https://hsmammunition.com/

The H & H is one of my favorites. My current one is a number 1.

But their website can't direct you to anyone selling it!

Just call them 406 777 2106 . I did (like 3 minutes ago) and they do sell direct. Jamie will set you up to buy direct, it's basically an age verification form. She did say that they didn't have any 300H&H brass right now and were waiting on it.
They do not charge until the ammo is shipped.

Would you be interested in a nice 721 ?

One of my fellow gun heads up north has two NIB Remington 700 Classics in 300 H&H, I have lost track of how many guys have approached him and wanted to buy one of them.

Benefits?

Compared to what?

Had a Colt Coltsman for many years, it shot factory Winchester 180gr Failsafe's amazing...traded it for a Ruger 1B in 257 Roberts

My early 1950s Winchester M- 70 Super Grade has a G&H side mount alternatively rigged with both a Lyman 2.5 and Leupold 4X Alaskans. With either Swift A Frame or Nosler 180 Partitions-nothing
in Alaska or the lower 48 is safe. The 300 H&H cartridge feeds like iced butter and gives up nothing, handloaded, to the other 300 magnum cartridges.
It worked for a century in Africa carried by some of the best PH guides like Blixen and Finch-Hatton along with many others.

Nostalgia aside, it feeds and extracts like a sumbitch.

Kinda like a .300 Win, or WBY? It was designed when the Brits loaded cordite. Cordite was known for temp sensitivity and for pressure spikes.

My Model 700 .300 Win feeds and extracts every bit as well as my pre-war Model 70 H&H. They are both flawless. But they are both fed exclusively a smokeless powder diet.

The smell of cordite in the morning? I'd as soon step in catshit.

That said, my "other" Magnum Winchester Model 70 is a 338, made slightly later in the 50s. And if pushed into an alder patch, "another" pre-64
Model 70 with the original 24 in iron-sighted barrel in 338-06.
I have heard that there are rifles other than early pre-war and pre-63 Model 70s and custom Mausers.
After diligent search, have not found any others in my bunkers. The Weatherbys do have a very strong action.

They seem to have a softer recoil than similar calibers at similar velocities. True or not it just feels that way. Others have told me the same thing. Just as accurate. Feed and eject like there is nothing there.

Benefits? They are easy to rechamber to 300 WBY...

That can be a bonus if 300 H&H ever disappears.

Compared to anything else shooting a 180 grain bullet at 3000 fps you'll find less recoil, exceptional accuracy and so much more panache than anything else you'll want to sit back, have a whiskey or gin and tonic and wonder why people ask these questions.

Beautiful rifle Pugs. I would rather have that than all the plastic 7mm08s and 6.5 Crapmores ever made.

LIKE....

I almost had moment when I thought you'd leaned the barrel directly against the rock! 😇🤣

That’s a beautiful picture with an even nicer rifle. Classic.

Awesome pic, Pugs

But realistically, panache is all you got there.

Sixty one years ago Winchester designed and released a fast .30 designed just for their Model 70 rifle. A year later they killed off the Model 70, effectively orphaning their new .300 Win Mag cartridge.
Despite being orphaned, the Win Mag flourished. It became commonplace across the planet, and this in both civilian and military usage

It's simpler and easier to build a performance rifle using the Win Mag cartridge, and the cartridge itself is easier to work with for the handloader..

That's still a cool pic, and anyone who just doesn't like Holland's Super Thirty likely won't fit well in any crowd of sportsmen

I think if I get another 200 rounds loaded I should be set for life....and my nieces life too. If new brass isn't worth $2 each then I will just keep it and load it.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...13364/new-r-p-300-h-h-brass#Post19813364

Not really, the 300 came out in the 20s and everyone loaded it with smokeless as well. You can load an H&H to similar velocities as the Winchester and the tapered case made for MUCH better EXTRACTION and the added advantages of the long neck to load heavier bullets. The Weatherby is a whole other story. And Nosler currently laods the H&H with 180 ABs

Like I've stated I'm a big fan of it. It kills stuff dead enough, recoils is reasonable, and besides that it's cool(to me). M70 1954 model.
I have a 300 WM I built on an Argentine 1909 action, full out blah blah..... I say it kills on both ends! Hardly ever shoot it any more.
My son has a 300 WBY in a ruger #1, same deal. Kills on both ends.
But as always, "Shoot what you like and shoot it well". That's really all that matters.

As for accuracy, it should be noted that the .300 H&H once stepped into the winner's circle on the national level, via The 1935 Wimbledon Cup match, and Ben Comforts Custom G&H 1917 rifle

I have or have had all the big 30s. None were terrible in the recoil dept. and I can't say I saw much difference in that area. But the H & H did feed really smoothly. I like them all.

OK, let's look at this from a performance standpoint.

.300 Win Mag load data (Nosler)

125 -grain bullets up to 3500 fps
220 - grain bullets up to 2750 fps
Max COL (22gr) 3.340”


.300 H&H Magnum (Nosler)

125-grain bullets up to 3600 fps
220- grain bullets up 2702 fps
Max COL 3.600”

I would struggle for anyone to find a whit of difference between those two sets of numbers for either paper or animals. Ok, a couple of points in the .300 WinMag favor

(1) I suspect with the sharper shoulder you get longer brass life but given we're all handloaders here, I suspect most of us neck size anyway and with 500 pieces of brass and my loads developed I can't imagine shooting it enough to kill all that brass given I'm 60 years old.

(2) You can likely build a .300 Win Mag rifle with a shorter action but if you're looking to save weight on either of these you must like recoil more than I do.

(3) On the .30 Supers favor, I still have panache as well as nostalgia and don't discount that! My M70 in the picture is a 1948 Super grade. You can find lighter rifles, you can find more weatherproof rifles and you can likely find more accurate rifles (although it shoots great) but what you can't find is rifles where, as you sit with your binoculars looking at view of the far hills, is the idea that this rifle has been in other hunters hands in the last 86 years sitting in similar places with the same hopes and dreams of hunting.

I suspect none of us hunt as much as we'd like so in many cases we spend a lot more time thinking about hunting, developing loads, reading, chatting about and simply day dreaming of being in the field again. For me the older cartridges still hold that mystique of our ancestors. Yes, I own an evil MSR (.300 Blackout with a suppressor) but it does nothing for me albeit it's fun to shoot and it was fun to develop loads for but I'm much more likely to pick up a .300 Savage, .257 Roberts, .275 Rigby, .270, .30-06 or the .300 when I head to the woods.

It's fun to talk about though isn't it?

It's what we do here...

I've got two, a Wiebe built on a 1909 Argentine and an Echols built on a Model 70. The Legend just came back from getting a new paint job on the stock and I haven't photo'd it yet but here's the '09.

That's what a rifle is supposed to look like.

Beautiful!!

Stunning

Oh yeah...

That's a beauty for sure.

A match made in heaven right there. M1917 in 300 H&H. I had a couple chambered for 300 Roy, and they were shooters. Loved those things!! I burned the barrel out of one of them, shooting hot 180gr Nosler ballistic tips, back when they were cheap as hell. Those were the days!!!

All this 300H&H talk, I will admit, I shot a guys Pre 64 300 H&H one evening when I was preparing for one of my club's precision rifle matches. I was shooting a FN 300 WSM back then, that was a favorite of some SWAT teams. That old pre 64, held it's own for 5 shots. It printed them into a nice cluster of about 3/4", but we were shooting at 160 yards. That is where that guy had his bench set up at, and I didn't want to look stupid, asking if we could move to 100 yards. The funny things you do and the people you meet out in the National forest!!

I'd love to shoot another pre 64 300 H&H. I've actually held your rifle in my hands, and almost bought it, when Bob offered it to me. That is a sweetheart of an old rifle. The kind you always kick yourself in the azz, for not buying!!!!

Back in the day i happened on this article, saved it and from time to time post it when appropriate.

The article may be somewhat dated, but was what tripped my trigger in regards to acquisition of a rifle chambered for the 300 H&H.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...cs/15588175/all/300-h-h-with-a-24-barrel




Ruger #1, 300 H&H



Remington 700 Custom KS, 300 H&H



Browning B-78 Hi-Grade, 300 H&H


ya!


GWB

I am having a Rem 700 in 7mm Mag made into a 300 H&H. I already have a different 7mm Mag and stumbled into an unfired barrel from a Rem 700 in 300 H&H and am going to do the swap. The 700 action will handled cases up to 375 H&H so that isn't an issue and the 7mm Rem Mag and the 300 H&H have the same base. May have to do a little work on the rails so it feeds right. I scrounged up a couple hundred cases, a set of dies, a couple hundred 168 gr Hornady GMX bullets and have almost 5 lbs of IMR 4831 to do load development with. Should be a fun project.

I'd have to disagree with some of the comments you made about it being the "best" or most useful 300 magnum cartridge.

Here's something that is a little more telling of the 300H&H. Written by our very own JB:

Now, while I will be in the process of buying a very nice Pre 64 model 70, chambered in 300H&H, I do agree with what JB posted.

Now, if you make a lot of money, and don't mind buying brass way more than you do any of your other 300 magnums, the 300 H&H may be your huckleberry. Compare the 300WSM to the 300H&H in that regard. There is no comparison really. I've loaded some 300 WSM cases up to 20 times, and the reason I chit canned them was because the primers were ready to fall out. Not really any fix for that. But tit for tat, the 300WSM is a near ballistic twin to the 300H&H.

Another writer that I thoroughly enjoy reading is Wayne VanZwoll. Back in the late 90's, he wrote an article about which 30 magnum was the "best". Through his vigorous study and research and experience he derived that as being the 300WBY. At the time, there were no WSM's or RSAUMS, but they were being designed and thought of. Guys had been messing with the 404 Jeffries for some time, but they had not debuted as SAAMI cartridges until a couple years after that article was written.

Wayne determined the WBY was better because of it's better case design. Less case stretch meant more reloads out of it, and it was much more "efficient". The powder it consumed was enough to make it edge out the popular 300WM by 150 fps or so, but it was not so much that it was deemed over powdered like the RUM and 30-378WBY, that was gaining in popularity back then (introduced to the public in 1996, but had been around since 1959).

Wayne garnered that anything bigger than the 300WBY case passed the threshold of the returns you get out of it. In other words, they just were not efficient enough to warrant using: They burned up too much powder, produced more recoil, muzzle blast, required obnoxiously long barrels, and had little gain: Imagine using a 30-378 that engulfs 115 grains of powder to send a 180gr projectile 3,250 fps, when you can use a 300WBY taking 79gr's of powder to produce 3,200 fps. Logistically the 30-378 fails miserably..

With that being said, the 300H&H is a very "nostalgic" cartridge. It will live on in the history books. There are many here that use it and love it, but by no means is it optimal or "best" in any scope of the imagination..

I've always loved the big 30's, have loaded for many and currently own the 300RSAUM, 300WM, 300WBY, and 308 Norma magnum. Just sold my 300WSM to a buddy that replaced a 300wm with it. They are all good, and I look forward to adding a nice 300H&H to the collection, but am not going to claim it is something it's not..

This, coming from a guy that just had his first 300WM, bought in 1994, out and fired 50 rounds for fun yesterday...

Mac, I did that and had zero problems.

I bought a sporterized M1917 from a pawn shop a little east of Memphis a few years ago- - - -Fajen stock, Weaver steel tube 6X scope, in pretty good shape. Obviously "Grandpa's old gun" that some crackhead probably hocked for dope money. Marked "300 Win Mag" on the hang tag. I stole it for $275.00 out the door. Guess what? Win Mag cartridges won't chamber. Did a chamber cast and found it's really H&H. My niece took her first deer from a stand on the back fence area of our place with it, using a 150 grain handload I worked up for it- - - -only time it's ever been hunted since I bought it .

Sir,

You'll get no argument here. I subscribe to the bromide that opinions are like noses, most everyone has one and many of them smell.

In the linked post I stated that at that time the 300 H&H was my favorite 30'. I did not say then nor imply now that it was the best. That is not my style as I am not a ballastician, and the only definition of an expert for which I qualify is " an "ex" is a has been and a spurt is a drip under pressure. If a cartridge interests me, I buy a rifle and loading die set, play with it and kill stuff, and sometimes send it down the road, then go on to the next project. IIRC, I have loaded for over 100 different catridges from 17 Ackley Hornet through 475 Turnbull. I currently have multiples chambered for the 30-30WCF, 308 Win, 30-06, 300 WSM, 300 Win Mag and at least one 300 Wby Mag. In addition, I am a low volume shooter who does his best not to pay retail for anything, so the cost of brass is not of particular concern to me.

I do believe I stated in the post above that was the article that had a major influence on my purchasing a rifle chambered for the 300 H&H. The opinions expressed by Mr. Bekker were his, they interested me. I developed loads for the Remington and shot those in both the #1 which followed another home a bit ago and for the B-78.





























Its a fun "round" that does what I need it to do.

As always, YMMV

Best,

GWB

This past weekend, I found a piece of HH brass in a campsite marked UMC 300 Magnum. The distinctive body taper was the tell of what it was. This is the only piece I have ever found out in the wild.

I think you are like me, you like and appreciate them all. Now, where's the best place to buy 300H&H brass!!!!??? HA HA.. You also remind me of my younger days. Killing schidt all over the place!! I didn't care what it was. Had to take a 7 year break from killing chidt, as doing it every day got tiring.....

I don't know, do know, i gotta get it out of my head that not everyone on this or any other hunting website handloads their own ammunition.

Woodhits that is a VERY nice rifle and my kind of one also. I have had two pre64's in 300 H&H a std and a SG. I love single shot rifles and when I liquidated the M70 collection I had this made. I posted more pics in the single shot forum but here's a couple.

That's gorgeous.

i still have a pre 64 Winchester model 70 300 H&H in my safe i don`t use its not perfect but it is all original .

Have a pre-64, too. Has killed a few things, both here and abroad.

I bought a 300 H&H 700 Classic for $1,000. It was barely worth that I figured, due to the stock not being all that great. When I took it home I took the barreled action out of the stock. The previous owner’s dad had crudely engraved his Minnesota Hunter ID on the bottom of the barrel. I got my money back.
Then I bought a pre-64 300 H&H. It has Leupold’s quick disconnect mounts as does my 375 H&H AI pre-64. I have M8 scopes in 4 Leupold quick disconnect rings. Both of these rifles have great triggers.
I am pleased with those Pre-64’s. Though I’ve shot the 375 a lot more - practice for a Safari in March 2025.