There is rare, like in Winchester's where rare means only several thousand made, and there is rare like a Holland/Woodward patent rifle where at most a couple hundred or so were built. This rifle a third model, built for George Dupont Pratt who was one of the heirs to the Standard Oil fortune and chambered in 500-450, proofed for the tropical loading of 70 grains of Cordite. This rifle remains in outstanding original condition and is cased in the original case. The rifle is a little over 8lbs, so my feeling is that it was designed to principally shoot the 365 gr loading and only shoot the 480gr load when you really needed to. Having shot an 8lb .450 nitro I know the recoil will be quite snappy with 480 grain loads and the rifle will not likely see Africa while it remains with me so some load development with 350 Hornaday RN soft noses is on the short term to do list. I'm delighted with it so far. More pics when I get a chance.

Wow. Just wow. That is wonderful.

That is just gorgeous, Steve.

Certainly a very nice and special rifle. Congrats
A couple questions please, I see where the proof marks on the rifle show 480 gr bullet and 70 gr cordite. However, on the paper label it says 40 gr cordite, which I assume is for the 365 gr bullets of all designs? And it specifically says "our special" case, was there something different in the recommended cartridge cases?

I believe the case label says 70 grains of Cordite, the handwriting in Victorian times is often very hard to read. Holland & Holland had promoted the 500-450 bpe before the advent of Cordite, when all of the British makers were trying roll out new smokeless offerings the 500-450 was Holland's standard big bore offering until the .465 was developed. There was nothing special about the 500-450 cartridge case, just marketing. Advertising of the day stated that both the 480 gr loading and the 365 gr loading printed to the same spot(out to 100 yards). The standard 365 grain load carried 70 grains of cordite while NFB loadings varied between 52 and 63 grains of cordite behind a 365 grain bullet.

Beautiful Steve! When you can, could you share some pics of the hand detachable tigger plate and internals?

Chris,
I can and I will.
Steve

Can’t wait to put the composed pair together.



Ken

A picture of the internals.



Ken

Thanks and you are right. Look at the "4" in the rifle number on the label. Should have seen it earlier.

"Before the Advent of Cordite" deserves to be a short story title. I'll likely poach that, at some point.

And I'm curious: Have many people here have actually seen Cordite? Because when I was high school-aged, I pulled a bullet from a circa 1947 military .303 British round because I wanted to make something decorative from the empty casing, and it looked exactly like precisely-cut short fragments of spaghettini. My eyeballs bulged. I'd been expecting something dark and granular.

I remember setting a strand of it on fire the next day at school, for the benefit of a friend and classmate who was also into military history and firearms, and I remember it burning very slowly, with a bright blue flame, and a peculiar aroma. Our English teacher was not amused. I may have been asked to leave the classroom.

I have a jar of Cordite on my desk, doesn't everyone?

First of all I gotta say that is a wonderful rifle. Congrats on becoming its custodian.

Cordite: the strands of cordite were bundled into the bottlenecked cartridge cases when still in cylindrical form before the final forming of the bottle neck was done. Otherwise it would've been difficult/impossible to squeeze the necessary amount of the stuff in after the case was fully formed.

Right next to the Rangoon Oil....

Well, yes.....

A few more pictures:

It does not get better. When do we get to see a pictures of a few targets?

Congrats again Steve. That looks just perfect.

Why do we live in a world where people make ugly things, when it's possible to do what H&H did so long ago?