Amajor date in the history of the company is the year 1883, when Holland & Holland entered the trials organised by the magazine The Field, and won all the rifle categories with flying colours. This set a new standard of excellence for the competition among London  gun makers, which they scrambled to catch up to. In 1885 the rights to the trade name ROYAL were granted, and in the same year the patents were granted to Holland & Holland for the famous Paradox gun, a shotgun with the front two inches of the barrels rifled.
Holland & Holland had another major impact on rifle making when they developed and patented the belted cartridge case in 1904. This has led to many famous calibers, the .375 H & H Magnum Belted Rimless being the foremost among them.
In 1908 the well known detachable lock feature with the small lever was patented and the last major development in the sidelock side-by-side occurred in 1922 when the assisted opening mechanism was patented. This gun, the famous self-opening ROYAL side-by-side, has been influential in gun-making throughout the world.
Holland & Holland was very active for the Ministry of Defence in both world wars. In WW1 they were especially well known for the duplex choke Zeppelin guns that fired a ball and chain, while in WW2 they produced 23,177 of the highly accurate No.4 (T) the Sniper Rifles.
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