The Ruger No. 1 is a fine rifle and one of Boddington’s all-time favorites…but rarely cited for awesome accuracy. This No. 1 in .300 H&H with 26-inch barrel is the most accurate No. 1 he has ever owned, capable of quarter-MOA groups on good days with the right loads. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington)
April 09, 2025
By Craig Boddington
It’s an overstatement to say that Holland & Holland’s .375 H&H Magnum was an instant success. Things didn’t happen that fast back in 1912. Powerful and versatile, it caught on and remains the world-standard medium-bore cartridge. Makes sense that its long 2.85-inch belted case, necked and shortened this way and that, would be the basis for many other cartridges. Still is. To this day, almost all belted cartridges we call “magnums” are based on the .375 H&H case.
One of the first of its many progenies was introduced in 1925, a century ago. Initially dubbed “Holland & Holland’s Super .30,” we know it best as the .300 H&H Magnum. The obvious (and successful) intent was to create a faster, flatter-shooting cartridge that produced less recoil than the .375 and would be better suited for lighter game.
In November ’24 Boddington used his Ruger No. 1 in .300 H&H to take this Oklahoma whitetail. Okay, maybe a little overgunned, but the buck dropped in its tracks, never a bad thing. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) Conceived in the early days of smokeless powder, the .30-06 was fast. Its original 1906 load propelled a 150-grain bullet at 2700 feet per second (fps). With modern powders, today’s 150-grain load for the .30-06 is faster, 2920 fps. In 1925, the .300 H&H was a screamer, throwing a 150-grain bullet at 3190 fps. At that time, it was the world’s fastest cartridge.
Pushing 150-grain bullets at a then-smoking 3190 fps, the .300 H&H was the world’s fastest commercial cartridge in 1925. Interestingly, H&H’s engineers used the American .308-inch bullet, rather than the .311 bullet of the .303 British, then common throughout the Empire. The .300 H&H was quickly exported to America, chambered in custom rifles, and loaded by the old Western Cartridge Company.
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Credit Where Credit Is Due So many fast .30s! Just a few, left to right: .300 H&H, .300 Wby Mag, .300 Win Mag, .300 WSM, .300 PRC. The century-old .300 H&H is about as fast as the .300 Win Mag and WSM. Other than nostalgia, its primary advantage is smooth feeding due to its old-fashioned tapered case with gentle shoulder. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) The .300 H&H was not the first fast .30-caliber. In 1913, Charles Newton designed a cartridge for gunmaker Fred Adolph. Originally the “Adolph Express,” the .30 Newton was fat-cased and unbelted, with a similar velocity to the .300 H&H a decade earlier. Though briefly loaded by Western, none of Charles Newton’s several manufacturing companies succeeded. So, although far ahead of its time, the .30 Newton is almost forgotten.
The .300 H&H did better…eventually. Western soon loaded it but, with no commercial rifles available, it was a rare bird for its first decade and could have been as forgotten as the .30 Newton. Then, in 1935, Ben Comfort won the 1000-yard Wimbledon Cup with a .300 H&H. The shooting world took notice. The following year the .300 H&H was among the initial offerings in Winchester’s brand-new Model 70, later called “the rifleman’s rifle.”
In 1936 the Winchester M70 was the first American rifle chambered to .300 H&H. This is a gorgeous 1940s M70 .300 H&H, replete with receiver sight from a time when magnifying scopes weren’t yet in common use. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) Like its parent .375 H&H cartridge, the .300 H&H’s long 2.85-inch case can’t be housed in a .30-06-length action. To this day, many manufacturers don’t offer an action long enough, but those that do (or did) soon followed Winchester’s lead and chambered the .300 H&H. For at least 30 years it reigned as the most common fast .30, and the world standard for flat-shooting, hard-hitting performance.
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In 1963 Winchester introduced the .300 Winchester Magnum, designed to replace the long, tapered .300 H&H with a shorter, more modern cartridge with minimal body taper and a sharper shoulder. It took some years for the .300 Win Mag to catch on, but it did. The .300 H&H is now chambered in no production rifles, and its ballistics have been surpassed by numerous fast .30s.
"Improved" Versions A good southern greater kudu, cleanly taken with a Remington M700 rebarreled to .300 H&H. For elk and the full run of African plains game, Boddington usually uses a 200-grain bullet in the H&H, in this case a 200-grain Sierra GameKing. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) This didn’t take long. Performance can easily be increased by removing body taper and sharpening the shoulder. Of many “improved” versions, Roy Weatherby ’s is the most popular. The .300 Weatherby Magnum is simply a blown-out .300 H&H with Roy Weatherby’s signature “double-venturi” shoulder. Significantly faster. As are more modern unbelted, fat-cased .30s, including the .300 RUM, 30 Nosler, and .300 PRC.
So, in its centennial year, is the .300 H&H now just a footnote to cartridge history? Yes, and no. If you’ve never messed with a bolt-action .300 H&H, then it’s impossible to appreciate the smooth feeding of that long, archaic tapered case with a gentle shoulder. It just about throws itself into the chamber. As for accuracy, compared against modern design, it seems to have everything going against it. Yet, as Ben Comfort discovered in 1935, the .300 H&H can be spectacular.
My Ruger No. 1 in .300 H&H, 26-inch factory barrel is, of many, the most accurate No. 1 I’ve ever owned. Older rifles are what they are. On average, barrels are better and more consistent today. However, case design is a minor factor in rifle accuracy when compared to the quality of the barrel. A LH Remington 700 rebarreled to .300 H&H with a good Pac-Nor barrel was also amazingly accurate.
Performance is a more complex subject. Today the .300 H&H suffers both from a lack of platforms and dearth of loads. Although not officially dropped by all the majors, factory ammo is scarce with almost no selection. Today, the .300 H&H is primarily a handloader’s cartridge. The .300 H&H is specified at maximum 54,000 pounds per square inch (PSI). More recent magnum cartridges call for max pressure up to 65,000 PSI. Against them, the .300 H&H starts with a handicap, but it gets worse. In our world of product liability paranoia, reloading manuals often hold older cartridges to lower pressure standards than specified. Using current data, it’s not easy to bring the .300 H&H up to original factory specs. But you can, and with care, maybe do a bit better.
Ideal Bullet Weight? In 2003, Boddington used his Remington M700 .300 H&H with 150-grain Sierra GameKing to take his first desert bighorn. The shot was 335 yards, considered by him the most difficult—at least the most pressured—of his life. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boddington) After all, rangefinders have long given us perfect knowledge of range, so how much velocity do you need? And, in .30-caliber, how much bullet weight? Like all older .30-calibers, .300 H&Hs usually have 1:10 twist. Can’t stabilize today’s extra-long, extra-heavy “low drag” bullets. Doesn’t matter to me; I’m not an extreme-range shooter, and at magnum .30 velocities, those heavy bullets produce a lot of recoil.
In my .300 H&Hs, I generally shoot 150-grain bullets on deer-sized game. For elk and African plains game , I step up to 200-grain bullets. Moving up a full third in bullet weight changes the game. I shoot handloads worked up years ago with older data, in modern actions and my .300 H&H rifles have always had 26-inch barrels. My loads are thus faster than factory loads of any vintage. And as fast as any .300 Win Mag loads…which are usually based on 24-inch loads. It’s thus rarely a fair comparison. With 150-grain bullets, my H&Hs shoot fast enough and flat enough for any distance I’m likely to shoot. With 200-grain bullets, they hit hard and penetrate deep. Just like the Super .30 did when brand new a century ago.
Today we have so many choices with better factory load selection that, in good conscience, I can’t suggest you should go looking for a .300 H&H. However, if you come across a vintage M70, Browning Safari, or any other .300 H&H in good condition, don’t shy away. Especially if you load your own. It will do anything any modern fast .30 can do. And probably feed smoother.
