Interesting to see if this will be an expansion of that classic brand.
Shooting Sports USA | Beretta Holding Acquires Holland & Holland
Shooting Sports USA | Beretta Holding Acquires Holland & Holland
Beretta announced purchase of Holland and Holland
- Thread starter dusty3030
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
Indeed. Seems to be a lot of takeovers/mergers lately in the world of firearm manufactures.
As a youngster devoured a lot of books about 'white hunters' in Africa, the H+H .577 Nitro Express their weapon of choice for facing a charging elephant...a huge round with obviously massive recoil. Not for the faint of heart, or thin of shoulder.
Was fortunate enough to own a .300 H&H takedown a number of years ago. A truly amazing piece. It ended up becoming 1/3 of the down payment on my house.
Some wag on the shotgun forum asked if this meant you'd be able to get a Holland & Holland with an anodized blue receiver and a red fiber optic front sight. 
Hair Trigger
US Veteran
i don't know how you'd expand the H&H line without a serious drop in quality. It's hard enough to find new craftsmen to replace the ones who leave, that have the ability to do that level of work.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXoNUzAyvk[/ame]
Much as I'd love to own a shotgun worth $100,000, if they become no better than a Beretta, why buy one? Not saying Beretta doesn't make a fine shotgun, but they aren't nearly on the same level as Holland and Holland.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXoNUzAyvk[/ame]
Much as I'd love to own a shotgun worth $100,000, if they become no better than a Beretta, why buy one? Not saying Beretta doesn't make a fine shotgun, but they aren't nearly on the same level as Holland and Holland.
This reminds me of a friend who bought a new Porsche when he finally got a good job, despite his father making him promise to invest in house. When his dad lit into him he said "dad, I can live in a car, but I can't drive a house!"
About ten or twelve years ago, while attending the Louisville gun show with my Dad, a friend from Florida and I got in a pretty serious negotiation of trading my Griffin and Howe .505 Gibbs for his Porsche. My Dad strongly let me know he didn't think it was a good idea so I backed off, despite feeling it was a smart move. That same Porsche is now worth about double what it was while my .505 is worth about the same. Father doesn't always know best.
I used my uncle's Model 70 300 H&H to get my first deer.
As much as we love guns, for most of us, they don't put a roof over our head, except in this case it did.
Nice job!
The guns I sold when I lost my job in 2009 helped keep the roof over my head.
Ivan the Butcher
Member
You guy are not familiar with the top end of Berretta! They have a line of bespoke doubles rifles and hand fitted O/U's. As to craftsmanship, they train the gifted ones to work on any gun they ever made. That means anything before WWI they have to hand make the parts, those guns can and do date back to 1577!
To the best of my knowledge one of their trained men lives in New Hampshire (or Vermont) and will fit you up a S/O while you wait, in any of the standard offerings, but just like H&H if you want "Special" it will take about 16 months!
Ivan
To the best of my knowledge one of their trained men lives in New Hampshire (or Vermont) and will fit you up a S/O while you wait, in any of the standard offerings, but just like H&H if you want "Special" it will take about 16 months!
Ivan
The Beretta SO series is pretty spiffy. Today business needs capital and networks - BMW may own Rolls Royce, and Bentley comes under the VW group, but they're still symbols of excellence.
Managed correctly H&H can carry on, and maybe even be improved. Maybe not, hard to know.
Managed correctly H&H can carry on, and maybe even be improved. Maybe not, hard to know.
Ackley1952
Member
I'm just afraid new owners of Holland & Holland don't have much experience in gun business. They are definitely newcomers.
In 1989 all outstanding stock in H&H was bought by French luxury maker Chanel. 
scooter123
Member
Obviously you aren't aware that Beretta builds Bespoke Shotguns. While they don't normally do anything costing more that about 100,000 USD I have heard of some running up to a bit over 130K.
As for what I expect Beretta will do with Holland & Holland I expect that the build shop will get up to date lighting and new equipment where needed.
What they will do to improve profitability will be to replace tired old machines with brand new machines. I also expect that they will improve the lighting in the shop, increase storage space for wood and steel and improve product flow thru the shop. I also suspect that stockers will receive profiled blanks from a CnC to work with instead a band saw cut blank. What they won't change is how a Holland & Holland Shotgun is made, actions will continue to be hand fitted and blacked as will the wood to metal fit.
When I was in high school in the '60's, I went to New York with my parents. I made a beeline for Abercrombie and Fitch and went to the 6th floor, where they had guns. In those days you could actually handle the used stuff. I picked up a H&H 20 ga. straight grip, double trigger, shotgun. The grip was a diamond in cross section. I was amazed how nice it felt. It occurred to me that perhaps the Brits actually did know a thing or two. As I recall, it was under $1,000, which, of course, I didn't have. I hate to think how much it is worth now!
Absalom
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
To make a general point:
One of the problems facing old-time craftsmanship in the modern world is the need for financial depth. You make a high-to-extremely-high quality product that takes weeks and months to have ready for sale, but you need cash during all that time to pay the running bills.
Beretta can do this because large-scale sales of standard pistols and longarms to the military, police, and consumer markets provide the financial cushion for the high end.
And since Beretta has deep experience and their tradition of gunmaking goes back a few hundred years before H&H, I don't believe anybody has to worry about the issues you'd face if some quick-buck investment group were in play.
One of the problems facing old-time craftsmanship in the modern world is the need for financial depth. You make a high-to-extremely-high quality product that takes weeks and months to have ready for sale, but you need cash during all that time to pay the running bills.
Beretta can do this because large-scale sales of standard pistols and longarms to the military, police, and consumer markets provide the financial cushion for the high end.
And since Beretta has deep experience and their tradition of gunmaking goes back a few hundred years before H&H, I don't believe anybody has to worry about the issues you'd face if some quick-buck investment group were in play.
Similar threads
