doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Value of H&H rook rifle

Recently a Holland & Holland royal hammerless rook, with case, went for ~$3500 on GB. It had been rechambered to 22 hornet and was beautiful. (I gave up right below the final bid.)

Another one, same design, but retailed by William Evans, just went for $3,750 before premium, at Julia's auction. I also was the last bid below that one! This rifle had been rechambered to 35-30 and came with a matching scope.

Both were quite nice. I still don't own one!

H&H made their hammerless Rook rifles in the "Ross" grade and the "Royal" grade.
They shared the same action but the Royal was engraved to a higher standard and the stock of the Royal had a cheekpiece with generally better wood from what I have observed.
In my opinion, the asking price is more in line with a really nice original Ross model and maybe about right as a lined Royal, again in otherwise great condition.
Many of these rooks have horrible bores so it is not unusual to find them lined to more modern chamberings many of which are way more versatile than the original rook specs.

In 1971 I picked up such a rifle in London for about $100. It had been badly mutilated, relined to .22 lr, the barrel and stock crudely shortened, evidently as a child's gun. I kept it for years, not knowing what to do with it, and finally gave it to a friend, a talented woodworker, who thought he could make something out of it.

I would say no thanks. For that kind of money you should be able to get nice old vintage single shot stocking rifle from Austria-Hungry or Germany.