of the woodcarver’s art, although again, it isn’t ornate. The beautifully grained walnut has no cracks or splits, and its “London Finish” is a bit worn, but it’s completely sound. As with the barrels, the stock shows handling marks, especially on the wrist, whose left side checkering is noticeably worn. TR was right-handed; there is a cheekpiece on the left side and the proper amount of cast-off to bring the sights into alignment with his dominant right eye. The pull length is 14-3/8 inches to the front trigger, with a drop at the heel of 2-1/2 inches.
Inlet into the left side of the stock is a golden medallion bearing the Presidential Seal and the initials “TR,” which I believe to be a post-1909 addition. I’m certain the butt plate is a replacement: it’s an incongruous red rubber pad that would be more at home on a double shotgun from Sears, Roebuck than a London Best Gun. I contacted H&H about this matter of the butt plate because correspondence in the files indicates that it was sent back to H&H for work in 1986. (In 1989, a film was released “starring” the Roosevelt double: In The Blood tells the story of TR’s great-grandson and his hunting experience in Africa. The film, directed by George Butler, interweaves documentary footage from the original expedition with modern images, tracing the route TR followed and bridging the time span of four generations.) The medallion may have been inlet at the same time. I was told by a Mr. Guy Davies that H&H have no record of installing either the medallion or the butt pad, but I’m absolutely positive the latter isn’t original. I can’t believe that H&H would have put something like it on a gun like this one.
Load data was also engraved on the bottom of the rifle’s receiver.
The fore-end assembly isn’t original either. It too was replaced in 1986. The correspondence from that time indicates that the original was in very bad condition and couldn’t be salvaged. Not only did H&H replace the wood, they made new metal parts as well, later “distressing both to match the level of wear the rest of the rifle.” I never would have guessed this from my examination: H&H’s craftsmen matched the level of “distress” of the new and old parts perfectly.
The sights are an example of how a customer for a London Best Gun gets what he wants. The front sight is an elongated gold bead on a short matte rib. The bead is rather small to my way of thinking, but TR had specified the sights he wanted in a note (on White House stationery) to Mr. Buxton:
I have never used a peep sight. I do not know whether it is just a prejudice of mine, or whether it is really that my eyes are not suited to one. At long range, I am sorry to say, I never was really good for anything. I enclose you the type of front sight I like most. The rear sight I like very open, but with a little U that takes the bead of the front sight.
The rear sight, also on a matte rib, was made exactly to this description and the sketch provided in the note. It’s a 3-leaf type with one fixed leaf for 100 yards, and flip-up leaves for 200 and (with amazing optimism) 300 yards.
The blued 26-inch barrels bear H&H’s name and address and the inscription, “Winners of All The ‘Field’ Trials, London.” Despite coming from the workshop of the premier Bespoke Gun Maker and being as perfect an example of “Best Gun” standards as could be imagined, this is indeed a working rifle. Moreover, it’s one that has obviously been used as its maker intended: both barrels have scratches in the finish, the sort of wear-and-tear you’d get from leaning it against various dead mud-crusted pachyderms or carrying it in a scabbard. However, it’s still in remarkably good condition, fully functional, with the action crisp and tight. Although TR carried and used it extensively for a year in very remote places, where access to proper cleaning equipment was limited to what his bearers could carry and conditions were not those the modern hunter enjoys, one could run a patch or two down the bores and it would be ready for action. Moreover, H&H can still supply the correct Cordite-loaded rounds they intended it to use: these are made by Kynamco, successors to the famous firm of Kynoch, who made TR’s ammunition.
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).
