Long time coming. .300 H&H!

[taylorce1]

It has been a long time to get my .300 H&H into shooting shape but it is finally done. I orginaly found the rifle setting in a used rack at a local gunshop for $99, already had the guard straightened, speed lock kit, rails modified, and chambered in .300 H&H. First thing I did was install the scope you see pictured below.

Went from this modified military stock with military trigger and B&L 2-7X35 Elite 3000 scope:


Never did shoot it in that configuration however as I had plenty of other stuff ready to hunt last year. So I took it to this next, a roughed out Richard's Microfit stock, and replaced trigger with a Timney. Stock had more problems than I was comfortable fixing so took it to Kevin Weaver and he shaped and bedded the stock for me, but left the rest for me to finish up later:


Finally to this Minwax antique oil finish, Minwax polyeurthane sealer, Leupold VXIII 2.5-8X36. I has been cold and miserable lately and gave me plenty of time to finish the stock:





I have finally shot this rifle. Picked up some factory Winchester or so I thought off the forum here, but the rifle wouldn't group better than 4". Pulled all the bullets and powder from the ammunition. Boxes were labled 180 grain but the bullets actually weighed in at 148.8-151.5 grains and the powder charge ranged from 0 grains in once case but the rest were 69-72 grains. Probably why my groups were all over the place and probably not factory.

I reused the bullets and powder but now every thing has a 70 grain charge. And since most of the bullets were within .5 grains of 150 I just took out the extreme ones. I'm going back to the range today to see if I can get it to group better. I got a good deal on the ammo so I'm not too upset it not being factory, brass looked brand new and unfired inside. Couldn't touch new factory brass for what I bought the loaded ammunition for.

I'm going to load this rifle up for hunting elk. I will be more than likely using 200 grain Nosler Partitions come hunting season. Since this rifle has a long 26" barrel I'll be looking at those slow burning powders to get the most I can out of the barrel.

[taylorce1]

Well she shot pretty good today had 19 rounds to play with after pulling bullets and reusing the componets. I shot one fouler shot to the right then I put three shots at the bullseye. Wound up 3" high and a pretty awesome three shot groups for no thought into my reloading other than to get onto paper so I could start loading up some 200 grain loads. Shot the next 10 rounds popping 20 oz coke bottles filled with water I'd set up for shooting with my varmint rifles. Went back to 275 yards and rang the 8" gong 5 out of 5 tries from the bench with no holdover.

[Scorch]

Nice!

[the rifleer]

you got that for $100?!?!?! thats very nice, you scored.

[WIN71]

The rifle came out real nice.

In my opinion a 200 gr. 30 cal. bullet at around 2900 fps would be about ideal for elk. I have been on a similar mission with a pre 64 in 300 H&H. It also has a 26 inch barrel. Using new cases, IMR 4350 and both 208 gr. A-Max and 200 gr. Sierra game kings it chrono's 2915 average. There's something about the 300 H&H that brings tears to an old mans eyes.

If those groups of yours are at 100 yards I can't come close. I get under an inch semi-regularly. I have a 4x Leupold on mine.

Good luck. The more you shoot it the more you're going to like it.

[TXGunNut]

Wow! Gotta be proud of that!

[taylorce1]

you got that for $100?!?!?! thats very nice, you scored.

I got potential for $100. The rest of the work added up to a little over $1K which includes the scope and a little over two years to complete. Really don't know how many times this little gem got looked over at the store before I bought it. For me it was a no brainer as I've rarely been interested in production rifles, give me the odd ball stuff any day.

If those groups of yours are at 100 yards I can't come close. I get under an inch semi-regularly. I have a 4x Leupold on mine.

This group was at 100 yards, just wish I new what powder was used and I'd probably try to duplicate the load. 150 gr load wasn't too bad of a practice load plus I have a ton of 150 grain bullets. However, I feel this rifle really needs to shoot 200 grain bullets.

[mpd61]

Just for comparison...
theres the exact same thing at my local shop right down to the missing handguard, rebarreled in 8mm mauser, for like $325!!!!!!!!!
Yes you scored!

[crimsondave]

This group was at 100 yards, just wish I new what powder was used and I'd probably try to duplicate the load. 150 gr load wasn't too bad of a practice load plus I have a ton of 150 grain bullets. However, I feel this rifle really needs to shoot 200 grain bullets.

I load 150 gr bullets in my 300H&H and use Reloader 15. It's a screamer. Shoots pretty tight too.

[skifast]

Nicely done

[taylorce1]

theres the exact same thing at my local shop right down to the missing handguard, rebarreled in 8mm mauser, for like $325!!!!!!!!!

Go in and try to make a deal if you are interested in it. I'll bet you can get them to knock some off, maybe enough to make it a good buy.

[hoghunting]

You did an excellent job, congratulations. I have fitted Richard's Microfit stocks, and will agree that they are a lot of work, but they are also very good stocks. A 180 gr will also work well on elk.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

that turned out really nice... seems I love the "older" cartridges more than these new fangled ones... got a 375 H&H but so far the 300 isn't in my loading & shooting collection...

I think those groups are awesome... I was under the impression that the 300 H&H wasn't that capable of target accuracy with the shape of the case but if you can figure out what you had there for loads, they did a fine job for 1st out of the gun

so forgive the milsurp ingnorance but was that a magnum action Mauser to start with... or ???

[taylorce1]

so forgive the milsurp ingnorance but was that a magnum action Mauser to start with... or ???

No in its original configuration it would have been a .30-06 as this and the 1903 was the main battle field rifle of WWI for the United States. While it has a Mauser style claw extractor the bolt only has two locking lugs, and they were all originally cock on close, mine has been converted to cock on open with a speed lock kit. However the Enfield is a very strong action (maybe the strongest mil surp) and oversized for the .30-06 so it has always been a desireable action for H&H length cartridge conversions. A lot of them have even been converted to larger cartridges than the H&H like .416 Rigby.

Converting this to a .30 caliber magnum was probably the simplest conversion since it allowed them to use the military barrel as well. I'm guessing the action probably wasn't even removed to chamber this cartridge. Since the .300 H&H is quite a bit longer than the .30-06 and has a belt more than likely it cleaned up the original chamber just fine. Next they would have had to alter the bolt face for the magnum rim and work the feed rails for the belted cartridge.

If this rifle didn't show any potential I'd probably would have rebarreled it to a .375 or .458 magnum of some sort. That is why I didn't try to shoot it first in the military stock that and I couldn't get a good cheek weld because of the comb drop. But looks like she is a keeper as a .300 H&H!

IIRC the .300 H&H held its share of long range accuracy records in its day.

[lt dan]

taylor, congratulations, there will be no other 300H&H anywhere. i am intrested in your speed on the 150grn?


my 300H&Hhttp://s775.photobucket.com/albums/y...%20and%20hogs/

[Kreyzhorse]

That is awesome. You would have never guessed the finished project started out like it did plus it's chambered in 300 H&H. Congrats.

[searchlight6]

I have some original older 300H&H ammunition in the boxes if anyone is interested.

Thanks