H&R 300/301 Ultra Rifles From the 70's

fyimo · Jul 27, 2014

In the 80's I was talking to my gunsmith and I said I love Sako and FN Mauser rifles but that they were to expensive for my pocket book. So he tipped off on a little secret and that was on the H&R 300 and 301 Ultra Rifles built in the late 60's to sometime in the mid 70's. H&R wanted to compet in the high end market against the Browning Safari Model which at the time was an expensive rifle.

They imported actions from FN and Sako and had a Douglas Air-Gauged Barrel installed and put them in a custom stock made by Fagen. They made a very limited quantity of them during the time they sold them and I decided to hunt them down. I ended up finding 4 of them and I bought them all for less than $350 each and they are fantastic rifles. The rarest one I have is a Model 301 with Manlicher stock in 25-06 with the FN action . The others have the normal stock and I have a 243 with a Sako 579 action, A 30-06 in a FN action and a 270 in a FN action. I have given the 270 to my oldest son but I still own the other 3.

I received this on another forum about these rifles that's sort of their history.

I was the H&R sales agent & ad manager back in the late 70's time span. Your Ultra Rifle sounds like it was one of the rifles built on an FN action with a Sako fully adjustable trigger & floor plate assembly. H&R bought the actions, used Fajen stocks (farmed out checkering to a couple of ladies who worked in the H&R Plant) and H&R Mated the Douglas air Gauge barrels into the Actions once they shipped in and orders were placed for them. I had a Sako Ultra Mannlicher-stocked 7 mm Remington Magnum on loan from the factory. Handsome gun if you like the extreme stock styling. Dumb chambering - gun was a 20" carbine. Shortly before I started working for them, the deal with Sako for their actions fell through, and H&R started using the Yugoslavian Zavasta Mauser (true '98 actions.) Your gun is far superior, at least as far as the action & Barrel is concerned, as you already Know Nothing Trump's a Belgium Made action made by FN Mated with an adjustable Sako Trigger assembly, & Douglas air Gauged custom sporter barrel. All these guns were virtually custom made at H&R, and total production of all Ultras was very, very low. They were built in small batches and usually sat in inventory until an order came in. Personally I never cared for the styling of the wood, and in 1980 - I think - they came out with an additional "Classic" model. These guns didn't last long because H&R went belly up in the early 80's. Hope this is of some help.

I think the supreme accuracy of the H&R Ultra rifle can be placed on the Douglas air gap Barrels that they used. There is little known information out there on these guns, and from what I have been told there were very few made up and sold. I am very Pleased with the one I got it shoots awesome. Another rifle that never grew famous but had wicked accuracy is the Ithaca LSA rifles. They were manufactured by Tikka of Finland a division of Sako, Then Imported to the U.S. I have had a half dozen of them in my life and should have kept one. I did have one in 6 MM that was one of my Favorites. The days of these High quality guns are long gone but if you keep your eyes open you can still find some out there. The gun shop that had my H&R Ultra had No Clue of what they really had and I wasn't about to educate them. For what I paid the Early Vintage Leupold scope was worth the sale of the gun. Regards,

They were built in small batches and usually sat in inventory until an order came in. Personally I never cared for the styling of the wood, and in 1980 - I think - they came out with an additional "Classic" model. These guns didn't last long because H&R went belly up in the early 80's. Hope this is of some help."

My 30-06 with FN Mauser action and refinished stock

My 243 with sako action and factory finish

My Model 301 which is the rarest of the bunch as very few were made with the FN Mauser action.

nvshooter · Jul 27, 2014

Those look as if they've been in the box, under the bed, for 30-plus years. Your hunting trip was most successful...

William A. Reed · Jul 27, 2014

Didn't H&R make a less expensive FN based rifle with a aluminum trigger guard and floor plate. Seems like the stock was not checkered. Flaigs was also selling an FN barreled actions with Douglas XX barrels about the same time.

fyimo · Jul 29, 2014

I haven't run into any that you mentioned but even Sears and JC Higgens imported a rifle with a version of the FN Mauser barreled action.

7MMRLC · Jul 29, 2014

Those are some fine looking rifles. I ran across a J.C. Higgins with a FN action in 30-06 yrs ago that had a cracked stock and picked it up cheep. Have a Bishop stock for it that some day I hope to put on it.

William A. Reed · Jul 30, 2014

I have a Winslow catalog around here some place.Those Winslow rifles make the H&R look classically conservative by comparison.

Gil Martin · Jul 30, 2014

Very nice pictures

Thanks for sharing. Those are some real beauties. All the best...
Gil

SuperDave1952 · Jul 31, 2014

H&R Ultra rifles

A close friend of mine bought his wife an H&R Ultra in 243 around 1981 at a gun show. The seller had a Remington Model 700 ADL with a cheap scope and a Winchester post 64 both priced far higher than the $350 asking price for the H&R Ultra. I am proud to this day that I talked him into offering $325 for the off-brand H&R Ultra and took it home to his lady. She took a very nice 8 point with it her first year. At the time I did not know anything about the H&R but thought it was a high quality firearm. We both later found out the back story.

HarryS · Jul 31, 2014

The ultra was a great rifle. But Americans were not ready for all that flash...they kept thinking Jack Oconnor and a dull lack luster M70 winni.

even the Weatherby with the high gloss and reverse angles foeend tip was not thought of a beautiful.

Nice find fyimo...impossible to beat those L579 medium length Sako actions and triggers. love mine, shot it yesterday.

William A. Reed · Jul 31, 2014

The rifles I fiddled with were the older factory FN Action, pre-Supreme, that had the military type bolt sleeve and thumb safety. The trigger was not adjustable and was a military looking trigger modified to be a single stage. The receiver did not have the thumb slot or hump on the receiver bridge for the clip. There was a following for the California/Weatherby look. At the same time you had a more classic style found in the Ruger 77 and #1. It was all a matter of personal taste.

Navarro1 · Jul 31, 2014

H&R 300/301 ultra Rifles from the 70's

your story about the H&R rifles reminds me of a gun I saw one time
I am a retired Texas Game Warden and saw the above messages concerning H&R Rifles from the past and wanted to comment on it.
In the early 70's I caught a road hunter ,he was a college student that killed a deer at night so he and his friends could have a bar bq the next day after the football game .this was about midnight on a friday night.
The Rifle he had was a 17/223 H&R small Sako action,Douglass BBl. 20inch Stocked with a beautiful rosewood capped stock that looked like a baby Weatherby.3X9Leupold.
I had been a Game Warden about 5-6 yrs and had looked at a lot of rifles both from outlaws and good hunters but this little rifle was something special. He got it back the next morning after he paid his fine and I visted with him more on it . His dad purchased it for him From H&R and they at that time had it in 3 calibers 222,223.and 17/223 He had the rifle about 2 yrs at that time ,.
I had a friend riding with me that night and he told me He was gonna find one like that, He and his wife spent the next few weeks calling everyone that had anything to do with selling high end rifles and no one had even heard of these particular rifles and too this date I know of only a few that are still around .

fyimo · Jul 31, 2014

Navarro1 said:
your story about the H&R rifles reminds me of a gun I saw one time
I am a retired Texas Game Warden and saw the above messages concerning H&R Rifles from the past and wanted to comment on it.
In the early 70's I caught a road hunter ,he was a college student that killed a deer at night so he and his friends could have a bar bq the next day after the football game .this was about midnight on a friday night.
The Rifle he had was a 17/223 H&R small Sako action,Douglass BBl. 20inch Stocked with a beautiful rosewood capped stock that looked like a baby Weatherby.3X9Leupold.
I had been a Game Warden about 5-6 yrs and had looked at a lot of rifles both from outlaws and good hunters but this little rifle was something special. He got it back the next morning after he paid his fine and I visted with him more on it . His dad purchased it for him From H&R and they at that time had it in 3 calibers 222,223.and 17/223 He had the rifle about 2 yrs at that time ,.
I had a friend riding with me that night and he told me He was gonna find one like that, He and his wife spent the next few weeks calling everyone that had anything to do with selling high end rifles and no one had even heard of these particular rifles and too this date I know of only a few that are still around .

There was a 17/223 H&R small Sako action,Douglass barrel for sale on GunBroker this past week but it had an asking price of $1200 which is way to rich for my retired blood.

Navarro1 · Aug 1, 2014

Yes I have watched the gun brokers site for several years and those riles have always been in that 1000- 1200 range. And again way too Rich for me but they are beautiful little rifles .

fyimo · Aug 1, 2014

Funny when I was buying these in the late 1980's to mid 1990's is that most dealers didn't know what they had. On the H&R 300 Ultra rifle 243 with the Sako 579 action the dealer wanted $450 and I offered him $350 cash on the spot. He turned it down and I went about my business at the show and he caught up with before I was getting ready to leave and it was Saturday and the show was ending in about 1 hour. He asked me if I would still pay the $350 for the 300 Ultra Rifle and I said yes and filled out the paperwork and bought it. I wouldn't have left the show without upping my offer to $400 but I didn't tell him that. The gun show was only a mile from my gunsmith so I stopped bye and showed it to him and he said he didn't think a box of shells had been through the rifle. I left it with him for a trigger adjustment and he glass bedded the action. Those we the good old days as now if you even see one it's usually pretty beat up or if it's in great shape they want Sako and FN Mauser prices for it.

I bought the H&R 300 Ultra Rifle in 270 with the FN Mauser action and it was also mint and I got it at another gun show for $350 and it came with scope mounts and rings. I let my oldest Son shoot it and one year he hunted with it and it was shooting one ragged hole at 100 yards. he told me to never sell it because he would buy it from me and I ended up just giving it to him. I usually make them pay something close to what I paid for a gun because that means it has value besides being one of my guns.

The one I like the best is the 301 Ultra Rifle in 25-06 with the Manlicher stock because it is so different and I've shot 3 Antelope and one Mule deer with it when I lived in Colorado.

Sawfish · Aug 1, 2014

I found one at a gun show some 25 years ago. It had a 4x Leupold scope that had turned green from who knows what, and had some type of black goo all over the buttstock. The seller was asking $350. I had noticed that the top of the scope bell was rubbed, which I was pretty sure was from carrying in a saddle scabbard (strange choice of gun for that purpose). At any rate, I was willing to gamble that the black goo was dried horse lather (sweat), so I offered him $250, and we settled on $300. When I got it home, I rubbed the goo with Go-Jo, and it came right off without too much effort. I sent the scope to Leupold for refinishing, which they said was not possible on that model. However, they offered to replace it at no charge under the Leupold Lifetime Guarantee. So far, so good. After scrubbing out the bore, I took it to the range, and it shot fairly well. Later when reloading the cases, I encountered more than the usual effort required for reloading 7mm Magnum, so I sent the barreled action off to have the chamber measured, In due time, I received the barreled action back with a cerrosafe chamber cast. The letter from the gunsmith contained the chamber measurements, which disclosed that the chamber had been unevenly cut, which made the fired brass uneven in diameter. Sort of egg shaped on the cross section. It shot fine, so I left it alone, as I thought rebarreling would destroy its value. Most of the FN actioned guns (like the J.C. Higgins), were cannibalized for the actions in the eighties, when FN discontinued the Mauser Supreme action.

BTW. I bought my original Model 300 new in the late sixties for the retail price of $165.

Big 5 · Aug 1, 2014

Sakos came in a lot of different clothes and they we're all good rifles.. My custom 6x45 is a round top Sako L-461 from H&R...

H&R 300/301 Ultra Rifles From the 70's

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