The engraved grip cap holds two extra strikers in case of emergency.
TR had much experience with dangerous animals in North America. Moreover he had the advice of professional ivory hunters who well understood the essential requirements for a weapon to be used on very large animals that not infrequently fight back; undoubtedly he took their counsel seriously. Although Terry Wieland’s Dangerous Game Rifles and John “Pondoro” Taylor’s African Rifles & Cartridges were published long after TR’s death, this rifle meets these authors’ criteria perfectly in all respects. Both are strongly of the opinion that a rifle for dangerous game should have neither ejectors or an automatic safety. Ejectors are complicated mechanisms prone to malfunction; and if the hunter is facing a charge and must hastily reload, the safety will be on from the moment he opens the breech. He is under the stress of mortal danger and an automatic safety may well get him killed. TR’s rifle has a non-automatic safety catch and extractors, not ejectors. (Correspondence implies that originally TR wanted a hammer gun – of which choice “Pondoro” would have heartily approved – but H&H had no hammer action on hand. To build one from scratch would have delayed the safari for a year or more.)
Double rifles are fiendishly expensive in part because each is essentially not one, but two rifles, joined together by a common stock. The real art of building one is to get both of the barrels to shoot to the same point of impact at some specified distance. This process of “regulation” is laborious but essential, and it demands that only ammunition with specific performance characteristics be used. The ammunition for this rifle was made to H&H’s specifications. Pasted inside the case (and engraved on the underside of the action) is the specific load for which this rifle is regulated: a 480-grain .450 caliber bullet fired with a charge of 70 grains Cordite. The production records include a notation that the rifle was test-fired with this load on December 12, 1908, five days before delivery, and achieved the accuracy H&H considered acceptable: a group of 2-1/8 inches by 1-1/2 inches at 100 yards. This is about 2 MOA, which even today is pretty good, and for a Rifle to be used on dangerous game at close range, entirely adequate…especially out of two separate barrels using open sights!
H&H was seriously concerned lest any other ammunition be used, with inferior results in terms of accuracy or point of impact: the ammunition label carries the warning that “H&H will not guarantee the accuracy of this rifle unless their ammunition be used,” and another informing the owner that ammunition could be obtained from “Messrs. Walter Locke & Co., Ltd., Calcutta & Lahore.” That ammunition was available several thousand miles away in India probably wasn’t much of a comfort to TR, so he brought a substantial supply.
As with the matter of the safety catch, extended top tang and extractors, the caliber was selected with care and upon expert advice. The “.500/.450 Nitro Express” is based on the 3-14-inch long .500 Nitro Express case, necked down to hold a smaller .450 bullet: the standard British nomenclature for this caliber is “.500/.450-3-1/4,” and it’s still catalogued as the “.500/.450 Nitro Express” by Kynamco. It’s still regarded by modern hunters as an outstanding choice for dangerous game. People who hunt big animals understand that it is bullet momentum and, above all, deep penetration that make a rifle effective, not high velocity. Taylor speaks highly of the .450-calibers in general and the .500/.450 NE in particular, noting that its roomy necked-down case causes it to develop much lower chamber pressures than comparable rounds, a matter of very real importance in tropical countries. Standard chamber pressure of the .500/.450 NE is 15-1/2 tons per square inch, a little more than half that of a .30-06.
The .500/.450 NE cartridges Ky-namco makes today are identical in performance to TR’s. Only one loading is available, a 480-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2175 fps out of a 28-inch barrel (it would be a bit less from the 26-inch barrels on TR’s gun). To Americans who are geared to think in terms of lighter bullets at higher velocity, +/- 2000 fps isn’t very impressive, but that big bullet has better than 5,000 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. Taylor measured a rifle’s effectiveness by what he referred to as “Knockout Value,” noting that, “…it’s the weight of the bullet that matters when it’s a case of knocking down some beast at close quarters.” The .500/.450 NE has momentum and penetration to spare and served TR well in some very tight spots.
The complete order included a heavy “best leather” case, in which were stored two slings, cleaning jags and a cleaning rod, a funnel, a bottle of sight black, and sundry other accessories. Inside the well-beaten-up but still intact case remain two sets of jags in small leather pouches, the cleaning rod, a bottle of “Rangoon Oil” and a jar of “Rangoon Jelly,” plus two wide slings with narrow ends for the 1-1/4-inch swivels. A Kynoch cartridge carton contains two fired shells and one live cartridge.
The rifle was a gift to the retiring President from many of his friends and admirers: a large label pasted into the lid contains a list of the names of all the individuals who subscribed to the fund. The names are a Victorian-era Who’s Who, many of the names still remembered today. In addition to F. Courtney Selous, various Dukes and Duchesses, the Earl of This and That, are many names of people who would play major roles on the world stage in the coming decade: Sir Edward Grey (Foreign Minister at the time of the First World War), Lord Curzon (Viceroy of India), and a name any reader of famous hunting stories will recognize: Colonel J.H. Patterson, author of The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.
This is a rich man’s gun: H&H was paid 85£/13s/6d for it, about $500 at the then-current rate of exchange. This was the equivalent of a year’s wages or more for an English working stiff. Prices have gone up a bit, but H&H will be happy to build a duplicate today for anyone who has about a half a million dollars to spend.
African Game Trails, the delightful book that showcases TR’s prowess (not only as a hunter but as a man of letters), is a nearly day-by-day account of his progress through eastern Africa. In it he recounts numerous kills he made, including those with the Holland &Holland. Here is his recounting of the first kill made with his “Big Stick”:
A Wakamba man came running up to tell us that there was a rhinoceros on the hill-side three-quarters of a mile away…I immediately rode in the direction given…In five minutes we had reached the opposite hill-crest…. The huge beast was standing in entirely open country, although there were a few scattered trees of no great size at some little distance from him…. I cannot say that we stalked him, for the approach was too easy. The wind blew from him to us, and a rhino’s eyesight is dull. Thirty yards from where he stood was a bush…it shielded us from the vision of his small, pig-like eyes as we advanced towards it, stooping and in single file, I leading. The big beast stood like an uncouth statue, his hide black in the sunlight; he seemed what he was, a monster surviving from the world’s past, from the days when the beasts of the prime ran riot in their strength…. So little did he dream of our presence that when we were a hundred yards off he actually lay down.
The case for TR’s .450/.500 double, showing all supplied accessories.
Walking lightly and with every sense keyed up, we at last reached the bush, and I pushed forward the safety of the double-barreled Holland rifle which I was now to use for the first time on big game. As I stepped to one side of the bush…the rhino saw me and jumped to his feet with the agility of a polo pony. As he rose I put in the right barrel, the bullet going through both lungs. At the same moment he wheeled, the blood spouting from his nostrils, and galloped full on us. Before he could get quite all the way round in his headlong rush to reach us, I struck him with my left-hand barrel, the bullet entering between the neck and shoulder and piercing his heart…Ploughing up the ground with horn and feet, the great bull rhino, still head[ing]