.244 H&H Magnum
Encyclopedia
The .244 Holland & Holland Magnum cartridge
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

 was created in 1955 in Great Britain by deerstalker and rifle-maker David Lloyd
David Lloyd (riflemaker and sportsman)
David Llewellyn Lloyd was an English deer-stalker, metallurgist, ballistician and sporting rifle maker, of Northamptonshire, England and Glencassley in Sutherland, Scotland. After service in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, extensive deer stalking, and frequent rifle shooting visits to...

 of Pipewell Hall, Northamptonshire and Glencassley in Sutherland, Scotland, and is not to be confused with the smaller-cased and much milder 6 mm (.244 in) Remington
6 mm Remington
The 6mm Remington was introduced by Remington Arms Company in 1955 as the .244 Remington. It is based on necking down the .257 Roberts. Originally intended as a Varmint and predator cartridge, the .244 was never factory loaded with bullets over 90 grains. Rifles marked .244 Remington have a 1 in ...

. Stalking on extremely steep deer forests such as his own at Glencassley, Lloyd was in search of a "canyon rifle
Canyon rifle
The Canyon rifle is a concept familiar to sporting riflemen. The term came into general use in the USA from the 1960s onwards, and alludes to a type of rifle cartridge or rifle-cartridge combination that will shoot very accurately and with an exceptionally flat trajectory out to distances of 300...

" cartridge that would shoot exceptionally fast and with a very flat trajectory
Trajectory
A trajectory is the path that a moving object follows through space as a function of time. The object might be a projectile or a satellite, for example. It thus includes the meaning of orbit—the path of a planet, an asteroid or a comet as it travels around a central mass...

 across deep valleys and over distances out to 300 yards (274.3 m) and more, to make range estimation less critical for accurate bullet placement, and to deliver a hard-hitting bullet weighing a minimum of 100 grains. The .244 H&H Magnum easily met these criteria.

History

Based upon the well proven .375 H&H Magnum
.375 H&H Magnum
The .375 Holland & Holland Magnum is a powerful rifle round and one of the best-known and most popular medium-bore cartridges in the world. The .375 H&H was only the second cartridge ever to feature a belt, now common among magnum rounds. A popular misconception is that the belt is for headspace,...

 rimless belted big game cartridge case heavily necked down, the .244 H&H originally fired a 100 gr, aluminum-jacketed, copper-pointed bullet pushed by 74 gr of non-cordite smokeless (nitrocellulose) powder, and returned a muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed a projectile has at the moment it leaves the muzzle of the gun. Muzzle velocities range from approximately to in black powder muskets , to more than in modern rifles with high-performance cartridges such as the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger, all the way to for tank guns...

 of about 3500 feet per second (1,066.8 m/s). That load and velocity remain standard for the commercially-loaded cartridge today; although handloaders can achieve higher velocities with careful load tuning. The .244 seldom performs well in barrels less than 26 inches (66 cm) long, owing to the need for a longer bore to allow pressure and bullet velocity to reach intended levels.

Lloyd was unable and unwilling to embark upon commercial cartridge production, and consequently "gave" the cartridge to veteran London rifle and ammunition makers Holland and Holland Ltd., who in 1954 had paid him £250 towards his cartridge development costs. H&H quickly adopted it, the cartridge acquired the prestigious "H&H" appellation, and both H&H and David Lloyd went on to build significant numbers of very high-quality bolt-action deer-stalking rifles in .244 H&H Magnum calibre (see Lloyd rifle
Lloyd rifle
The Lloyd Rifle was the 1950s brainchild of English deer-stalker, rifleman, metallurgist and engineer David Llewellyn Lloyd. His objective was to create a high-quality, scope-sighted, magazine-fed sporting rifle capable of dependably high accuracy at long ranges, of retaining its zero despite...

). Initially, commercially-loaded ammunition was manufactured by IMI Kynoch
Kynoch
Kynoch was a manufacturer of ammunition, later incorporated into ICI but remaining as a brand name for sporting cartridges.-History:Kynoch was established in Witton in Birmingham in 1862 by Scottish entrepreneur George Kynoch when he opened a percussion cap factory in Witton. In 1895 he built an...

 at its Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England factory. Commercially, this cartridge has only ever been loaded with 100 gr bullets: lighter- and heavier-bulleted loads have been created by handloaders
Handloading
Handloading or reloading is the process of loading firearm cartridges or shotgun shells by assembling the individual components , rather than purchasing completely assembled, factory-loaded cartridges...

.

Chuck Hawks, a prominent US commentator on rifle cartridges, opines that, "the .244 H&H Magnum represents some sort of high water mark in the development of the 6 mm cartridge. To use an aviation analogy, you could think of it as the Concorde of rifle cartridges."

David Lloyd
David Lloyd (riflemaker and sportsman)
David Llewellyn Lloyd was an English deer-stalker, metallurgist, ballistician and sporting rifle maker, of Northamptonshire, England and Glencassley in Sutherland, Scotland. After service in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, extensive deer stalking, and frequent rifle shooting visits to...

, the .244's originator, went on to develop a still more powerful prototype round by reducing the case body taper and increasing the already large power capacity to produce the "David Lloyd 6 mm Magnum". His hope was to use bullets heavier than the .244 H&H standard 100 gr; but this cartridge was never commercially produced, and only two prototype Lloyd rifle
Lloyd rifle
The Lloyd Rifle was the 1950s brainchild of English deer-stalker, rifleman, metallurgist and engineer David Llewellyn Lloyd. His objective was to create a high-quality, scope-sighted, magazine-fed sporting rifle capable of dependably high accuracy at long ranges, of retaining its zero despite...

s are believed to have been chambered for it.

In the early 1990s British fieldsports author and ballistician Colin McKelvie had a custom rifle built on a BRNO CZ Magnum action, with a .244in Border Barrel with a 1:7 fast twist. Using handloads with very-low-drag
Very-low-drag bullet
Very-low-drag bullets are primarily a small arms ballistics development of the 1980s–1990s, driven by shooters' desire for bullets that will give a higher degree of accuracy and kinetic efficiency, especially at extended ranges. To achieve this the projectile must minimize air resistance in flight...

 (VLD) .244in hollow-point bullets of 115 gr, accuracy of 0.63 MOA
Moa
The moa were eleven species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about ....

 was achieved, with average muzzle velocity of 3,630 ft/s (1,106 m/s) and acceptable chamber pressures. This level of performance is what Lloyd had sought with his "improved" .244 H&H Magnum.

Controversy

While the belted .244 H&H Magnum could be considered the velocity/energy pinnacle of 6 mm/.240in cartridges, that power comes at the cost of significant muzzle blast, as well as shorter-than-average barrel life; in addition to which commercially-loaded ammunition is expensive. Because of these drawbacks the cartridge never came into widespread popularity, and has never been offered as a chambering by any of the mass-market riflemakers. The .244 H&H rather fell by the wayside in favour of 6 mm rifles in the same general class such as the .240 Weatherby Magnum
.240 Weatherby Magnum
The .240 Weatherby Magnum was developed in 1968 by Roy Weatherby. In the development of his own .240in/6 mm cartridge, Weatherby was significantly influenced by both the success and the limitations of the .244 H&H Magnum cartridge devised in England by his friend and colleague David Lloyd. It was...

 (for which it had been an inspiration to designer Roy Weatherby
Roy Weatherby
Roy E. Weatherby was the founder and owner of Weatherby, Inc., an American rifle, shotgun and cartridge manufacturing company set up in 1945. Weatherby created an entire line of custom cartridges, and was one of the people responsible for the industry interest in high-speed cartridges...

), and also the various 6.5 mm Magnums. The .244 H&H still has its adherents, however, and occasional rifles are still chambered in this caliber, by Holland & Holland and others. Ammunition is still made for Holland & Holland, and used cases can of course be handloaded
Handloading
Handloading or reloading is the process of loading firearm cartridges or shotgun shells by assembling the individual components , rather than purchasing completely assembled, factory-loaded cartridges...

.

External links

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