How many of you out there have actually had the chance to shoot or own one of these H&H firearms or even known someone that had one, I bet it's a very rare thing to see.
I know a guy who owns and shoots several H&H double rifles. I've held them in my sweaty mitts and they are lovely, trim, gorgeous, and well executed little rifles. One is a .375 Flanged Magnum the other is a .500/.465 NE. The .375 he told me, is worth something north of 130K the .500/465 about 80K. He also owns and shoots John "Pondoro" Taylor's old .450 #2 NE. In fact he shot several tuskers in a Botswana with it last year, it is worth something North of 250K and he has no problem checking it into the belly of an airliner and dragging it around the bush shooting stuff with it. If I owned that rifle I'd be too paranoid, it would likely never leave the safe.
To this guy the money isn't a factor. He's got more money than he could spend in one lifetime and he enjoys his high dollar toys. I enjoy the fact that he is willing to share his rifles with anybody who is interested in them and that he uses them for their intended purpose, to hunt and shoot.
With that in mind not all H&H rifles are worth tens of thousands of dollars either. I was in Zimabawe several years ago and one of the apprentice PH's there had his fathers old .375H&H built by H&H in around 1920. The rifle had earned it's living in Africa since then and continues to do so today. There are working grade H&H bolt rifles that can be had for under 10K if you look hard enough.
All of the English gun makers built working grade rifles for the average working hunter in the day. These rifles were plain with little or no embellishment in terms of fancy wood, engraving or other fancy add on items, but they all had one thing in common that isn't common at all today. Attention to detail and meticulous hand made craftsmanship, there are not two of these English rifles from the "period" that are exactly identical. They are all hand fit and hand filed so every one of them is unique in some way. They were NOT production line rifles. So even the "common" working grade rifles were not common at all by today's standards. And of course you could also order a one off "Bespoken" rifle from these makers. Those rifles went to the elite of society, business tycoons and royalty and the filthy rich in general. And that is where makers such as Holland & Holland, Purdey, J. Rigby and Co. and such made their names famous and that is why they charge so much for a new rifle today. You are paying for a name. Just like a Rolls Royce. It won't do anything that a Ford won't do in terms of driving, but that's not why the well healed buy them. They buy them for the status of owning one. A guy who can afford to own and hunt with an H&H rifle is making a statement, he is saying to the world that nothing but the best will do, it's all about the status.
This an example of what I am talking about. I've seen H&H bolt rifles in the 7K range from time to time. I wasn't able to find one right off the bat but here is a working grade H&H double and while still pricey it is an example of a "low" priced H&H double rifle. About a 1/4 of the cost of a high grade fancy H&h double.
http://www.champlinarms.com/Default.aspx?tabid=30&ctl=GunsDetails&mid=409&StyleID=3&GunID=1858
