.300 H & H

[centershot]

Now that I have your attention, why am I lusting over this old has been?? I know there are a large number of modern .30 calibers that will blow this one away. Unless you build a rifle, most available ones are pretty pricey since they are older collector pieces. I believe Browning and Blaser make bolt action rifles in this caliber. So should I just take a cold shower and look at an '06?

 

[watercam]

Build a rifle. The .30 H&H dominated the LR crowd when it came out. Great cartridge that deserves to live a bit longer.

 

[scubohuntr]

If you were going to go by that standard, the '06 is outdated too. As are most of the calibers you could select. There are a bunch of hot-stuff magnums out there that will out-magnum the H&H, but you'll still be shooting while those guys are waiting for new barrels. If you have an action with the length to take a .300 H&H, I certainly can't think of any reason (other than building a .375) not to do it.

 

[4xforfun]

LOL...it's like the conversation I had with one of the guys over at Krieger BBL's when discussing my 6.5-284 problems. He laughed when I made the comment "It's not like the 6.5-284 is no good any more...it's not like since the Dasher and the BRA came along it quit shooting good groups". He said that they had had that EXACT conversation earlier that morning.

Yes, the 300 H&H is old....Yes , there are faster, newer, more powerfull 30's out there, but...NONE of them will feed as smoothly as the H & H.

And, I'll take all bets that the animal you kill won't protest because you killed him wrong!!

Tod

 

[mac86951]

Hmm; 300 H&H with a Berger 200.20x...

 

[swd]

There's no fleas on the 300 H&H. It out performs the WSM so what does that say for the WSM?? It performs very close to or right along side the 300 Win Mag.

 

[LA50SHOOTER]

There's no fleas on the 300 H&H. It out performs the WSM so what does that say for the WSM?? It performs very close to or right along side the 300 Win Mag.

Outperforms the WSM at what ??? (I can't wait to hear this)

The 300 H&H Magnum is a fine cartridge and has a very long history on African Planes Game. - It also has won some early matches at 1000 yds in a couple of different shooting disciplines.

 

[oldhoward]

300 H&H and the 375 H&H are great cartridges and will do most jobs very effectively. I wouldn't hesitate to build either one of the H&H rounds.

 

[IdahoSharpshooter]

I really like the old H&H. If you look thru the 30 caliber rifle cartridges in the Berger Manual, you will find the heavier bullet loads give up very little in MV to the latest crop.

I shoot 190gr MK's.

300 H&H 2944 fps
RSAUM barely 2900 fps
300 WSM 2941 fps
308 NORMA 2989 fps
300 Win Mag 3006 fps
300 Wby 3062 fps
300 RUM 3066 fps
30-378 Wby 3151 fps
In 1985 or so, Dan Lilja designed his 30-416 Sniper cartridge, and built rifles. A bit faster than the big Wby.

You have to step up to the big boy 30-378 to get an appreciable velocity increase. I define that as over 100fps difference.

My current 300 is a switch barrel, other barrel is a 375 H&H on a mid-1950's FN Commerical Mauser.

Rich

 

[Zero333]

Get a classic hunting rifle in the 300H&H and don't look back.
M70
Brno 602
etc

 

[Tommie]

You should build a 6.5 Creedmoor instead.

Sorry. I just couldn’t resist.

 

[joed49]

I've owned a 700 Classic in .300 H&H for 14 years, it's a great cartridge. I've noticed I'm never trimming brass with this cartridge and it will shoot just about all weights of .30 cal bullets accurately. It can do pretty much the same as a .300 WM if you want to load it warm. It shines with the 200 gr bullets.

Don't know if it's the rifle or cartridge but it doesn't kick to badly. I sold a model 70 in 7mm Rem Mag because it kicked worse then the H&H and wasn't as versatile.

No idea who is chambering this cartridge currently though.

 

[nakneker]

Classic caliber, still very capable. It’s not the caliber that makes a rifleman deadly, it’s the guy that knows his caliber and rifle that is deadly.

Build it, practice and it will outshine most rifleman/caliber combos.

 

[slm9s]

I agree on the recoil being less snappy than a 300 win mag. A great cartridge.

 

[Kurz]

The recoil is a different feel because of the shoulder angle and amount of powder moving down the barrel while trying to burn. There is still plenty of factory ammunition offered by all of the main manufacturers but reloading allows you to refine the load for specific uses. My first Rem. 721 was chambered for the .300 H&H cartridge. It was surprisingly accurate without having to do too much fussing around. I bedded it and fixed the trigger. Three shots off a truck tail gate in 3/4" at 100 yards. I used it for elk and Mule deer.

Regards.

 

[ebb]

Rich the Hodgdon data center list a starting load for Retumbo in a 300RUM shooting 190s at 3069 and a max load at 3204. You don't have to cook the numbers a 300 H&H is a wonderful cartridge.

 

[Barlow]

I say go for it. Barlow

 

[joed49]

I thought I was the only one that liked this cartridge. I picked the Classic up from a LGS while living in FL. The owner of the shop bought it for deer hunting and put it up for sale after finding a model 70 pre 64 in this chambering. I bought it for an Elk hunt with a bunch of friends, only hunt I've ever used it on.

 

[Clark]

I bought a 300 H&H 3 weeks ago, and have not decided WHAT to do with it.

Buy 7mmSTW reamer, dies, and brass?
Buy 300 H&H dies and brass?

 

[Laurie]

There's no fleas on the 300 H&H. It out performs the WSM so what does that say for the WSM?? It performs very close to or right along side the 300 Win Mag.

No, it doesn't outperform the WSM - it matches it. They have identical case capacities and SAAMI MAP settings (65,000 psi), so they will give identical performance all other things being equal. (Well, not quite identical as the WSM's considerably shorter case means the effective barrel length is marginally longer for a same external length barrel.) As 4xforfun says, the H&H Magnums were designed to feed superbly in Mauser Magnum actions, and that they do. As originally loaded too with bundles of case length cordite strands with a lot of airspace around them, they stood up to African temperatures better than today's geewhiz designs and the best of modern single-based extruded short-cut powders despite the use of a very high nitroglycerin percentage double-based propellant.

I had a 300 H&H 'bitzer' rifle built entirely on recovered components in the early days of F-Class. It was great fun and got me into the discipline on a really low budget. At the time, the WSMs were new and I kept having arguments with their (deer shooting) owners that their newfangled cartridge was 'more powerful' because it was 'more efficient' than my 1912 design. It's not .... but then again it's not better either. It shot very well indeed, but its one downside was that in a minimum SAAMI chamber with very tight case-belt to chamber belt-recess fit, four loadings would see Winchester cases become tight on the case-body just above the belt and had to be scrapped.