doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Holy Grail stuff...

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.