Thread: Ever wondered why H&H takes years to make a gun?

@Carlsen Highway

I need to explain. In reply to my comment "Buying an expensive gun like that, a sad ego trip" someone replied, "My ego is big enough to own one. I would even put up with middle class snobs calling me sad to do it." By Jove! I was a bit taken back, old chap, at that sort of aggression.

As for my supposedly considering myself "working class" based on me mentioning my humble origins, nope. Haha. Who would consider himself be of of his ancestors' social class simply through descent? And working class down a coal mine, you must be joking. If talking about a population study done by a sociologist, I'd no doubt currently get grouped as "middle class" in terms of education, profession, etc. No, so don't pride myself in any so called working class background, my lineage and my own childhood of simple food and second hand clothes is more a source of humility. My parents gave me help and values, no one is a self-made person. Not getting me.

The angel Xenophobia's siren song, let me explain. Pride in nationhood and particularly assumptions that you are somehow 'better than..' underlies all xenophobia. Antidote: a hard inward look.

Which brings us back to classless NZ, sure NZ immigrants left their upper social class behind them on emigrating from e.g. the UK. But only because the upper class had the land and could not come along! Social class was not left behind, it could not be. Man is social and forms societies, and societies all have social layers, from wolf packs to ant hills and cities. NZ imigrants slotted into strata in their new society. And as per the proverb about the slave unfit to become a king, they badly mistreated their new brown-skinned underlings in their land grab. NZ Social stratification is continuing to sediment out, what with more and more farms owned by large corporates, more and more families renting from landLORD and landLADY owners of multiple homes etc. Point is, this planet is too small to run away from anything.

BTW, now we've made friends, see you live in Port, do you go shooting at Bruce or at the deerstalkers'?

My dear man, that wasn't aggression. I was just pointing out the reverse snobbery of your comment. Surely you must have expected something like that when you came onto the thread and described eveyone who had posted a desire to own a Holland and Holland gun as being on a "sad ego trip"? Perhaps you meant that in a constructive way. A helpful way.

Xenophobia means a fear of foreigners, and is a synonym for racism. You're still misusing it.

I am not sure you quite understand the British class system. This just illustrates my earlier points, but is nonetheless a good thing.

Now that we are best bosom buddies, you will know me at any range by my strong opinions.

That Lee Enfield sporter you posted is loverly.I have seen a few of them,but never one with a tang safety.
Who made it?

Originally Posted by norsk

That Lee Enfield sporter you posted is loverly.I have seen a few of them,but never one with a tang safety.
Who made it?

Could be a Sparkwood MLE. One just went on TM for $160, including an extra magazine and 20 CAC soft nose cartridges. The dust cover vs. a charger bridge gives them very nice lines. By comparison, the No 1 Mk iii "sporters" look a bit like drag queens: not quite the part.

Its a Lee Speed.
A commercial sporting rifle built on the Lee Enfield action by BSA, and sold also by people like Westley Richards, Holland and Holland, Army and Navy and others, under their own names. THey made them from about 1902 up to 1930 or so, but the heyday was prior to WW1. This one was made about 1909.
The tang safety is a BSA patent and came on their high end models or could be order at extra cost. It was only used on these rifles. It is an excellent addition to the rifle, and in the perfect place for a safety in my opinion.

The walnut is dark with age but dramatically figured, the metal parts of the action have light scrolled engraving around the receiver, trigger guard, dust cover etc. The magazine is engraved also. The horn foreend is actual horn, hand cut wraparound checkering.
They go for good prices in excellent and original condition and are quite sort after in the States. There is a cottage industry among aficionados of making replicas out of old long tom actions. Gary Keown in Lawrence has made several for people, making the stocks himself.