At the annual CLA Game Fair in Britain, fans of vintage doubles will find an incredible number and selection of finely crafted shotguns and Express rifles.
A single Holland & Holland weaves together a story of the Great War’s trenches, one of the world’s best gunmakers, Britain’s greatest 20th century soldier and the author of Gunga Din.
From about 1880 ’till the beginning of World War I, so-called “contract guns” were sold as house brands by scores of hardware and sporting-goods dealers under the names of gun companies that never existed except on paper—an external hammer shotgun can be a thing of beauty or a disaster waiting to happen.
When told that Holland & Holland would not build him a .600 Nitro Express, one man, through determination and perseverance, ended up creating the most powerful sporting cartridge in the world: the .700 Nitro Express.