doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Holland Rebirth Project

Hello all and Happy New Year!!

After searching for quite some time to find a suitable site to host pictures,
I have decided to give Flickr a try, still not as simple as the old Photobucket but there’s not much else one can do these days….I know it’s bound to test my patience but I have a few completed projects I was hoping to share…. so let’s see how it goes.
On that note…

A few years ago I had the good fortune to acquire a cased London best by H&H.
Ordered by a member of a prominent Canadian family for duck hunting and completed in 1913, a time when London craftsmanship was at its zenith.
It was easy to tell from its well used condition that this Holland had seen a lot of action, any lesser quality specimen would have surely joined the scrap heap long ago…but that was not the case here.
The 30” Whitworth fluid steel barrels were still in proof, sound and on face, the bores were clean, shiny and without a single imperfection, mechanically it was still in superb condition,
With stout 1-1/4 oz nitro proofs and a heavy frame with side clips, hand detachable locks, third fastener and a crisp (early) Holland single trigger….a true “Royal Hammerless Ejector”
The wood and gun case were a different story…the former, oil soaked and suffering from a few failed repairs, the latter in complete tatters, but it was a Holland Royal non the less and from where I stood not a bad
specimen at that.
Sure, it needed a thorough going over and re-stock but if any one gun deserved it, this was it.

These are a few pictures of the case as I found it….










Because I knew the work would take a long time to complete, the case was sent off fist to be fully restored in the best London fashion.
The Holland on the other hand was put away to join the rest of the worthy but less fortunate ones

I will post a few “ before” pictures of the gun as soon as I get them sorted out…..stay tuned

Really looking forward to this one CJO.

These are a few pictures of the gun as was found, what’s not to love…you can see it exudes quality from all angles…the lovely Holland Scroll , it had that lovely vintage smell that often accompanies these old cased guns but you can also see the poor state of the wood, it had to go

Do you have a stock blank picked out? Pictures of the candidate replacement would be nice to see.

That was an amazing gun.
It will be again.

Good to see you posting pics again, CJO. And, a very nice way to start back, too! I hope you will show lots of before and after pics of each stage of restoration of this old warrior.

Would you post some pics of the proof marks, and provide the weight of the gun as is? And, how long are the barrels?

Thanks, SRH

P.S. I'd also love to see the innards of the locks. I'll bet others here would, too.

the good, the bad an duh ug ly...

too bad the original wood cannot be saved...

what a great piece of history. I imagine it was heavy duck loads that did the stock in. It certainly deserves to be restored.

Very much redeemable, good luck and keep us posted.
I too am looking a Holland Royal.

Has the case been finished and returned to you yet? If so pictures of it would be a nice starter for those of us waiting to see the whole finished project.

I’m looking forward to this one, Claudio. Personal bias suggestion: make a long, slim semi-beaver tail forend and a full, capped pistol grip to create a wonderful clays/wildfowler. It would be a real standout configuration. The ubiquitous straight grip/splinter tradition is so yesterday. Make it unique and special!
JR