American classic English rifle groupie, here. I visited Holland & Holland's main showroom in London during a recent business trip there. A pilgrimage, of sorts. The folks at H&H very kind to allow me to ogle their example of a .600 @ 250,000 Pounds, among many others. My British colleagues were dumbfounded, of course. Leave it to an American to come to London and visit a gun shop with the few hours he had to "see the sights."
I did the same 25 years ago and spent a hole day there, I did spend some money in the shop, 2 books and a shooting jacket and at $2300.00 Aust it was money well spent. The wife at the time was not so sure about that, but I still have the books & jacket (not the wife) LOL
@@ookeekthelibrarian Lovely story. Thank you for sharing. I'm afraid my credit card limit didn't go high enough for what I wanted there. A lovely .600 caliber at 250,000 pounds. Clearly you made the smarter purchase.
2:09 "Non-Dangerous Herbivores" Ha, in Spencer Chapman's autobiography of his time in asia, he writes about hitting a water buffalo square between the eyes with a slug. It merely made the buffalo very angry. He had to hide up a tree.
Paradox rifling was a godsend for Russian civi gun owners. Those (and also Lancasters) are curently used as a loophole to get what is basicly a rifle with just a shotgun license, which is much easier to get.
@@noneyabusiness3253 Yep, 5 years, but I don't own firearms myself. I was thinking about it, but I decided that at my current state I don't wanna own any firearms.
@@dahartman88 I actually enjoy this law, because you need some dedication to start working on your gun license. So the people, who don't have dedication to own firearms, not gonna own it.
@@StrangerOman i really dont care for it because its fairly stupid when you think about it. all its does is force people to wait a super long time to own a rifle legally. im not hating on outside of the fact this laws do nothing but hurt people who follow the law. any time longer than a year and its silly. i know i could find someone i could steal a rifle in the time it takes me to get the paper work and gun legally i strongly dislike laws the put stupid wait times on stuff that all ready costs alot to get in the first place. like even a cheap hunting rifle is $200+ in america. which is more than most people can safely afford to drop on an impulse . i understand the reason for some wait but if its more than half a year its stupid
I was brought up with a double barrel side by side. But I far prefer the O/U for shotguns. Mainly because of the grip. However, I still think the S/S are beatiful weapons, more so than the guns I prefer. I can´t even explain it, they just look better.
This sounds like a job for Taofledermaus . . . (After all, it IS a sporting gun, so come on Rock Island, be really sporting & send it to Jeff for a proper test! : )
Thanks for posting this. I recently read "Kenya Diary" by Col. Richard Meinertzhagen, who was an officer in the King's African Rifles before WWI and an avid hunter. His main guns were a .256 Mannlicher and a Paradox double.
I go on my lunchbreak pretty much the same time every day (12pm GMT) and it really cheers me up seeing a brand new video when I sit down to chill out with a nice sandwich and a cup of tea 😁😁😁😁😁 And yes, I really do watch your channel every lunch break! Hoping you stick to the scheduling!
Kreighoff had their own solution to the same basic problem: Hunting where you don't know what you're going to be shooting at. So, they make combination guns (In fact, their proprietary Combi-cocking device is pretty mechanically unique.) For instance, in 20 gauge, and .375 H&H Belted Magnum. The nice thing about these is you don't have to reload, though with the Paradox guns, you could load one with ball, the other with shot.
Don't forget the Savage Model 24. I've owned a couple of them over the years and the .22 LR over a 20 ga. is great for small game. They came in .410, 20 and 12 ga. under a rifle barrel that came in calibers from .22 LR up to, I think, 30-30 Win.
@@TheMudbrooker I didn't, I had one myself. However, comparing a Savage to a Holland and Holland was a little too much of a stretch for me. At least Kreighoff can claim to be in the same league of European Bespoke Craftsmanship. I would as soon compare my Inglis High Power to the Luger Carbine, which I had posters of on my wall as a kid. They both do the same job, but some are mass produced, the others works of art.
I'm a big fan of the .22 Hornet, in guns like this. With another barrel for something big, my favorite was .22Hornet/.410/.45 Colt. It doesn't matter what I want to shoot, one of those 3 can be loaded to kill it. (The Hornet is reloadable, one of my main problem wit Rimfire rounds.)
Holland n holland really seems to make georgeous sporting arms. I wish Ian was able to dig a little deeper with it and open the break to show down the barrel so we could see the shift from smoothbore to "choke" though i understand why he may not have,(
this one for a Holland & Holland is being sold very low 7000 to 11000 isn't bad it wouldn't shock me if Holland & Holland buy it to sell in there shop I know the last Holland & Holland I shot was a high 6 figure gun but so so nice
I'm not a big fan of the NRA but that museum was simply amazing for anyone really interested in firearms, you will need a dedicated day at the very least. I mostly love American museums, spent almost my entire eight days in Washington in the Smithsonian (various).
I'm actually curious what the collectors niche for this is, if you're aware. I mean it's not unique, it's not an experimental gun, this specific gun doesnt have any kind of attachment to a notable person, it's a high quality gun yes but I assume not incredibly rare since the company still exists making basically the same thing. Yet at the same time if you wanted a really pricy sporting shotgun and had the money for it you'd just go straight to H&H yourself to get it made perfect. What kind of person buys this gun I wonder.
Jimmy De'Souza: I think the type of collectors that will collect anything that any gun company makes, kinda like today with the Winchester rifles, collectors want to get their hands on every model that came out
I used to live three miles from their shooting grounds. Very nice place! They now have a fully interactive (live fire, your rifle or theirs) indoor projection system for shooting boar, deer & large African game. For sharpening your skills or full instruction. You don't really want to wing a boar or something bigger & more dangerous. Reasonable pricing too. I'm going to book a few hours on my next trip back to the UK.
Technically Holland does not mean the same as the Netherlands. Holland is only part of the Netherlands. So the Dutch based company would be called something like Middlesex and Middlesex. Although if you called it Cornwall and Cornwall, that sounds a lot nicer.
Pretty cool ian, this is one of my favorite channels and my great great grandpa designed this gun, most of his descendants ended up in kelowna British Columbia.
Ian ,you should check out the "locks" on some of the British guns ,also the fitting to the buyer , much more involved than just the length of the stock .
I recently got an old savage 24 for kinda the same reason. I use it to walk the fence and it's a great one to have where I can do abt 99%of what may need to be done and rugged enough I don't have to wory abt it to much
Beautiful wood. Always nice to see a vintage H&H arm. I first heard about the Paradox system 30-odd years ago as a teen, reading late 60's Guns & Ammo mags i found somewhere. The gun in review was an 8 bore elephant gun with Paradox rifling. I don't recall Fosbery's name being mentioned. The 8 bore was quite something, and definitely had the power. Good times. Great video as always. Thank you
I went down a rabbit hole last year on British custom gun makers. The Brits do an incredible job incentivizing smaller makers to start up. There are no less than 50 in country that, for the most part, make beautiful firearms. I’m a sucker for bolt-action rifles, a la James Purdy. Incredible
Frithjof Nansen had a Paradox, grouse, hare, fox , moose.deer, polar game also and lot more of game and areas he brpught it too. Frantz Rosenberg ,the famous gunwriter, gunbug, ShooterKing, and Olympicist he had a couple also, one is a Westley Richards 28 bore Fauneta which is around today .
A friend of the family went back to his inherited 16 gauge double barrel from a pricey 12 gauge auto-loader to hunt pheasants. He said after 5 years of never firing a third shot from the auto-loader he went back to the double barrel.
It's interesting that you mention Paradox chokes as something obscure and almost completely forgotten. In fact, in Russia, where obtaining a smoothbore gun is (relatively) simple, but getting your hands on anything with a rifled barrel is a full fledged pain in the butt, Paradox rifled choke is still very much alive and kicking (a smoothbore gun with a rifled choke is not considered rifled). Most people with a Saiga have a screw-on Paradox choke for shooting slugs, and it is almost a mandatory piece of equipment for the .410 caliber Saiga, which is pretty useless as a shotgun. Some guns are only sold in this configuration, e.g. the VPO-208 (smooth-bore SKS in .366 Lancaster / 9.6x53 mm TKM with a fixed 14 cm long Paradox choke).
I know you don't do shotguns often but man do I love it when you do. If you ever come across a Beretta UGB (Ultimate Gun Beretta) I would LOVE to see a video on one!
His V.C was auctioned off for $45000 in 1997. I wonder if that amount would get you even one of his paradox guns. His ingenuity is worth more than his heroism. I wonder how he would feel about that.
Isn’t Fosbery solving an issue already solved by ‘Cape guns’ or drilling combination shotguns? - I suppose the weight is less but I think just adding a rifled 303 barrel slung underneath would be more effective.
That poor poor gun, bubba's been at the screws, the head of the stock is oil soaked to the point of splitting. I hope the new owner sends it off for a nice spell with someone who actually knows what they are about :(
Since it is for aution, probably the date of manufacture would be good to give showing if it has antique status or not. If I missed that the date was given, then please accept my apologies please.
Well I suppose my 12 Bore Paradox does not exist and that Holland & Holland (who still make them) are just fooling every one. Just go back to being Felix Cat Food.
That is a gentleman’s weapon right there. I can almost hear the sipping of twenty year old scotch and the swapping of exotic hunting stories just by looking at this puppy
Nice video. I'm curious although, it was said that there was not much difference between the pattern of the dispersion of the pellets in the 'semi-rifled' barrels compared to a smooth bore barrel, that would be 10%, 20%?
Im not sure the auto-safety thing is always a lawyer deal. I have an inherited stevens model 335 side by side 12ga hammerless that engages the safety on action break and it was made in the 1920s
While I get the idea, two shells of shot or slugs. Why not have one barrel rifled and the other smooth? That way you have a good shotgun and rifle, just with one shot each
If you fire shot out of the left barrel and then follow it by a slug from the right barrel, the slug will get infinitely close but will never catch up to the shots.
Bugs Bunny once described a Paradox as a set of twin docks in parallel extending from the shore. This drove Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck to total distraction.
@@Outland9000 That estimate will end up being out by a significant amount no doubt. To talk of the manufacturer and the history of the gun, I can foresee a battle between online bidders. Theres quite a few H&H guns that cost the wrong side of 100k brand new and they only make about 80 guns a year. You're looking at about 30 months for a new delivery. The gun right there in the video is old and has history though... Deep pockets? LIke Russian bore holes mate... You could sell a few organs and still not have the cash.
You mean a Cape Gun? They were popular in Southern Africe (c.1890-1940). But they were less flexible as, depending on your target, you might only have one useable barrel. Whereas with a Paradox you had the option of loading both barrels with the same ammunition. Allowing you a quicker follow up shot.
While saying lew-tenant is correct if he holds the rank in the British army he is called a lef-tenant. The change happened after the rebellion in the 13 colonies.
its the exact same rank, just pronounced differently in the UK, so since Ian isn't British he shouldn't pretend to be IMO, unless he remarks something like 'or as the British would say it...'
1906, The Punjab. The officer surveys the scene. Perhaps he'll take a deer today, oh but the birds are so tempting. Without warning the bushes part. "Dear god sir!" the officer cries "A frickin' tiger"
Could you dona review on the spanish paradox side by side. Julian Arana "LA SORDA" i recently aquired one and am struggling to find information, ammunition that i can use and potential value.
