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CONTEST! Guess How Many 300H&H Made?

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

Perhaps someone (likely outside of the U.S. where some of the later .300 H&H's were distributed) can tell us if the later rifles were marked as ".300 H&H Mag" to differentiate from the Winchester cartridge. All I've seen (and that's not many) have been marked simply ".300 Magnum", but of course, they've all been from 1966 or earlier.[/QUOTE]

300 H&H Mag - Australian delivered in 1975 - serial in the 45000's tho
 
Wow! We had some great guesses.

I was asleep at the wheel and failed to close out the contest at midnight like I said I would, and the closest guess came in after the deadline, so here's what we're going to do: The closest guess, which was late, will receive a free Level 2 Factory Record search, and the closest guess prior to the deadline (which would have been the winner if I had been on the ball) will also receive a free Level 2 Factory Record search.

The exact number of .300 H&H rifles produced from 1961 to 1974 was 1,174.

Winchrman of South Dakoka missed by only 1 with his guess of 1175!

And Alpine Hunter was the closest prior to the midnight deadline with 1,200.

If Winchrman and Alpine will contact me with your requests through Private Conversation (include your email address) I will relay your information to the researcher.
 
Now for some additional information on the .300 H&H from the research:

Annual production (no breakdown on standard vs. deluxe prior to 1968):

1961 -- 41
1962 -- 160
1963 -- 122
1964 -- 241
1965 -- 60
1966 -- 119
1967 -- 52
1968 -- 46 Standard, 0 Deluxe
1969 -- 72 Standard, 27 Deluxe
1970 -- 82 Standard, 0 Deluxe
1971 -- 6 Standard, 18 Deluxe
1972 -- 68 Standard, 10 Deluxe
1973 -- 31 Standard, 10 Deluxe
1974 -- 5 Standard, 4 Deluxe
1975 onward -- 0

At the end of 1974 there were 5 Standard and 21 Deluxes left in inventory. A few were shipped in 1975 and 1976, with the last shipment in our records being 2 Deluxes in 1977. HOWEVER, there were still 18 rifles, all Deluxe, left in inventory going into 1978. We have no records after 1978 so have no information on when those might have been shipped, or where.
 
A fun contest Stone! I think we were all winners thanks to you taking the time to put the contest together, taking the time to research the production records, and then fairly manage the conclusion to determine 2 winners. I enjoyed it. After posting my guess of 825, and even though I knew I couldn't change my guess, I started wondering why I didn't use a more scientific method to determine the number of 300 H&H 's made. I threw together a scientific plan and I found the results interesting. I thought I'd share the results of my "scientific method".

I have 4 pages of factory production records for L61R. Each page contains 50 rifles, so we're talking about 200 rifles out of the 48,900 rifles (per a post that gives the serial number range covered by the records). My 4 pages of records cover rifles in 35xx, 95xx, 329xx and 448xx range. I put together a spread sheet that merely shows the number of each caliber produced. I assumed eight calibers (264, 270, 7mm mag, 30-06, 300 H&H Mag, 300 Win Mag, 338 and 375. My pages did not list any 25-06, so they're not on my list. Here are the results:

Number Produced then Caliber and Comments
60 in 264
6 in 270
34 in 7mm Mag
22 in 30-06
7 in 300 H&H Mag (4 rifles listed as 300 Mag, and 3 rifles listed as 300 H&H Mag)
16 in 300 Win Mag
20 in 338
7 in 375
8 rifles contain had no information entered (I'm guessing these 8 serial numbers were not used)
9 rifles. Production date and other info was entered. However, caliber was not entered.
10 rifles. Production date was entered and rifles were listed as a Magnum. However, caliber was not entered.
1 rifle. Production date was entered and rifle was listed as a H&H. However, caliber was not entered.
200 rifles total

If I assumed the ratio of seven 300 H&H rifles out of 200 rifles applied to the entire 48900 rifles, then there might had been 1711 300 H&H's produced. But my guess was closer to correct.......so much for a scientific method.
 
What a great idea, Stone!

It is interesting to consider the numbers produced in each year and the range fluctuations represented from one year to the next. What would be REALLY interesting to see is how many were actually sold to an "end-user" each year.

When's the next contest?? :D
 
When's the next contest?? :D
Thanks for the comments, guys.

I "stole" the time away from doing "honey do" chores by fibbing to her that I was working on income taxes. (She's still demanding to know when I'm going to put the Christmas tree away.) Now I'll have to come up with some other excuse find time to actually do the income taxes I said I was working on. Bottom line is I'm not sure when I'll have time to run some more Sako numbers, but I enjoy doing it, particularly since the broader SCC community seems to also find it interesting.

The first thing I need to do is go back and get some corrected numbers for the L46 calibers. The numbers won't change very much, but I'll work on it as soon as possible.
 
Douglasstwo: I think your "scientific method" is a sound one, it's just that the database it relies on is too small and represents a limited period of Sako production.

For example, early on, the .264 was, surprisingly, one of the most heavily produced calibers in the L61R line. The 7mm Remington Magnum, which became hugely popular, was only introduced (by Remington) in 1962 and it took a while after that for Sako to pick up that chambering. So, although the 7mm RM appears to be much more common in an L61R than the .264 today, it was only much later in the run that it heavily outnumbered the .264 in production numbers.

As a result, if you applied your scientific method to the inspection records for 200 rifles from 1962-63 you would get one answer, but if from 1968-1969 you might get quite another answer.
 
I agree. A dead giveaway to the fact 200 rifles is too small a database is the seven 270's produced. That would indicate the 270 is one of the rarest L61R calibers made. We know that's not correct. But I was surprised to see that of the 50 rifles in the 489xx range, 8 were 264 and 12 were 7mag. But what surprised me even more is that serial number 3557 is a Colt 7 mag produced in 1973. Lots of odd stuff goes on in those ledger sheets. But what surprised me even more was that out of 200 rifles there were 28 that I couldn't identify the caliber. I guess the shipping ledger would help with some of that.
 
As a result, if you applied your scientific method to the inspection records for 200 rifles from 1962-63 you would get one answer, but if from 1968-1969 you might get quite another answer.
This was my thinking exactly when reading the "scientific method". I also admired rickengine's logic to do essentially the same method to get production numbers by caliber. For the L61R, I personally have come up almost empty handed on the .300WinMag and .375H&H. It seems those two are really scarce. I've been doing this for a long time, and I do have the different configurations in each caliber.....its just been my experience that I don't see these two chamberings very often.

Great stuff ! thanks SCC !!
DeerGoose
 
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