This is barely an average group from Boddington’s .300 H&H. The H&H case goes against modern design principles, but it tends to be very accurate.

.300 H&H MAGNUM
Introduced by Holland & Holland in 1925, the .300 H&H (a.k.a. Holland's Super Thirty) is based on the .375 H&H case necked down to .30 caliber. It has a long case with an archaic taper and gentle shoulder. The world took notice when Ben Comfort won the Wimbledon Cup in 1935, but the .300 H&H's real boost came when it became one of the initial chamberings for the Winchester Model 70 in 1937.

The .300 Weatherby Magnum, essentially one of several "improved" versions, definitely made some inroads from the late 1940s onward, but the .300 H&H remained the standard (and much beloved) fast .30 caliber until the .300 Winchester Magnum was introduced in 1963. Since then, the shorter .300 Winchester Magnum has almost completely eclipsed the .300 H&H--and of course there are plenty of other fast .30s as well.

The .300 H&H has that obsolescent case design; one glance tells you "this dog won't hunt," at least according to modern cartridge design theory. It requires a full-length (.375 H&H-length) action. The few remaining factory loads are laughably anemic, no faster than "extra high velocity" (Federal High Energy, Hornady Light Magnum) .30-06 loads.

This is a shame, but there are plenty of handload recipes, and specialty suppliers like Larry Barnett at Superior (superiorammo.com) have some very good loads for the .300 H&H. The reality is that the old-fashioned tapered case offers the smoothest feeding in the entire world of magnum cartridges, and with properly loaded 150-grain bullets out of a 26-inch barrel my .300 H&H will outrun any .300 Weatherby Magnum I've ever owned.

With 180-grain bullets I can come pretty close, and with 200-grain bullets I can do everything I need any .30 caliber to do. Accuracy from that long, tapered case is also routinely spectacular.

My .300 H&H is not exactly retro, but it is reactionary. Understand, of course, there are almost no "vintage" left-handed .300 H&H rifles. So mine started life as a standard Remington M700 BDL with a magnum bolt face. The .300 H&H happens to be the favorite cartridge of my buddy Geoff Miller at Rigby, and he rebarreled the Model 700 with a very good Pac-Nor match grade tube and cut a tight chamber.

I tend to use 150-grain Sierras for smaller game such as sheep and Coues deer. I step up to 200-grain Sierras for elk and African plains game. With both my handloads and Superior's loads (to my recipe), it consistently groups well under a half-inch with both bullet weights. However, I think its very best group was a very tidy 11⁄2-inch cluster at 400 yards.

Regrettably, I don't see the .300 H&H making a comeback. There are too many other popular fast .30s. Also, the requirement for a longer action goes against current style, and if you must have a longer action, perhaps you might as well also have a larger case such as the .300 Weatherby Magnum or .300 Remington Ultra Magnum.

On the other hand, there are thousands and thousands of .300 H&H rifles still in use, quietly revered by those who use them. I believe there is a screaming need, and a reasonable market, for a couple of decent factory loads that can approach the genuine potential of all these great old rifles.

.264 WINCHESTER MAGNUM
And if setting up a brand-new rifle in .300 H&H is retro, that applies in spades to turning a brand-new rifle into a .264 Winchester Magnum, which is exactly what I did last year.

Introduced in 1958 in a 26-inch-barreled version of Winchester's beloved Model 70, the .264 had everything going for it. The "magnum craze" was just getting started, and anything wearing a magnum moniker seemed certain to succeed. Never mind some blue sky in the factory figures; the .264 was fast and flat, and it took off like a rocket amid unprecedented hype in the gun magazines.