I wish double rifles would make a comeback

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  • Hohn

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    I know that I personally still see a lot of value in a double rifle. Especially one chambered in something in a classic rimmed magnum revolver round. A double rifle in 460SW or such would be something like the ultimate "woods gun" in my view.

    Why?

    - Big game hunters in Africa and the world over have proven that 2 shots is generally sufficient for hunting
    - Mechanical simplicity means low cost and high reliability.
    - Easy to make mechanically tough and durable
    - Safety-- absolute and positive verification of chamber condition. Travel through the woods with the action open if you want (shotgun birders do all the time), or wait to the last minute to load
    - Extremely low profile-- no mag sticking out. Smooth or bob the hammers for snag-free design
    - Super compact, because the breech is much closer to the shooter than on any repeating design


    No, I'm not suggesting we all need a 4-bore custom English gun that weighs 50#, or a $10,000 bespoke rifle in 700 Nitro Express. But a modernized version designed for field use in a powerful straightwall chambering. Something with world-class fit and finish that sells for a reasonable price because of the cost savings of simplicity and not having 100 hours worth of engraving on it.
     

    OneBadV8

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    I wish the over-under double-rifles with different calibers would come back too. Like the .223 over a .22 lr :thumbsup:
     

    snorko

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    I don't know much about double anythings. Am I correct that side by side rifles are regulated for a specific distance but barrels on over unders are parallel?
     

    jinks

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    I know that I personally still see a lot of value in a double rifle. Especially one chambered in something in a classic rimmed magnum revolver round. A double rifle in 460SW or such would be something like the ultimate "woods gun" in my view.

    Why?

    - Big game hunters in Africa and the world over have proven that 2 shots is generally sufficient for hunting
    - Mechanical simplicity means low cost and high reliability.
    - Easy to make mechanically tough and durable
    - Safety-- absolute and positive verification of chamber condition. Travel through the woods with the action open if you want (shotgun birders do all the time), or wait to the last minute to load
    - Extremely low profile-- no mag sticking out. Smooth or bob the hammers for snag-free design
    - Super compact, because the breech is much closer to the shooter than on any repeating design


    No, I'm not suggesting we all need a 4-bore custom English gun that weighs 50#, or a $10,000 bespoke rifle in 700 Nitro Express. But a modernized version designed for field use in a powerful straightwall chambering. Something with world-class fit and finish that sells for a reasonable price because of the cost savings of simplicity and not having 100 hours worth of engraving on it.
    Here are a few things to think about:
    Shooters of dangerous animals often have others with guns for back-up.
    Regulating the barrels takes precision and skillful builders. A double rifle will be regulated for a particular bullet weight, at a specific velocity. Many double rifles are set to have the bullets cross paths at about 75 yards, giving acceptable accuracy out to 150 yards.
     

    two70

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    I know that I personally still see a lot of value in a double rifle. Especially one chambered in something in a classic rimmed magnum revolver round. A double rifle in 460SW or such would be something like the ultimate "woods gun" in my view.

    Why?

    - Big game hunters in Africa and the world over have proven that 2 shots is generally sufficient for hunting
    - Mechanical simplicity means low cost and high reliability.
    - Easy to make mechanically tough and durable
    - Safety-- absolute and positive verification of chamber condition. Travel through the woods with the action open if you want (shotgun birders do all the time), or wait to the last minute to load
    - Extremely low profile-- no mag sticking out. Smooth or bob the hammers for snag-free design
    - Super compact, because the breech is much closer to the shooter than on any repeating design


    No, I'm not suggesting we all need a 4-bore custom English gun that weighs 50#, or a $10,000 bespoke rifle in 700 Nitro Express. But a modernized version designed for field use in a powerful straightwall chambering. Something with world-class fit and finish that sells for a reasonable price because of the cost savings of simplicity and not having 100 hours worth of engraving on it.

    You missed a zero in the price of a bespoke double rifle. :):

    Very often in Africa, especially in old days where bullet performance was spotty at best, 2 shots were far from enough. The big bore double rifle preceded the magnum bolt guns by several years so originally it was a case of two shots being better than the one offered by the single shots common back in the early days. After bolt actions started to become prevalent the main thought behind choosing a double was that an immediate second shot was often better than a faster third or possibly fourth shot.

    Hammers on a modern double have pretty much gone the way of the dodo and that's been the case for a long time.

    Kirk is correct, there are plenty of current double rifles being manufactured it is just a matter of price. A cheap double is still going to cost $4k-$8K and even then most of the market/profit is in the higher end guns. The few that have tried lower end double rifles have not lasted long in the US market. Few of the EAAs that were mentioned ever made it here before the line was dropped and the ones that did sell for upwards of a $1000 when they hit the auction sites. Sabatti used to make fairly nice medium and big bore doubles for $3K-$4K but they have risen in price and few are making it to the US.

    I'm sure what you're suggesting would sell to some extent but I doubt there's enough volume there to make it worth a firearms manufacturer's time and money to develop and market one. After all, there are plenty of small and medium bore doubles to be found in Europe and if a real, tangible market existed for them here we would at least see significantly more of them being imported. So much of the US market is focused on cheap rifles, long rang shooting, and being able to hang a plethora of doodads and accessories on a rifle that there is little market share or interest in double rifles, unless they are big bores... and likely bespoke rifles.
     

    russc2542

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    You have the ratio off: by the time you buy an unadorned double, engraving is a drop in the bucket.

    Yep, they're regulated for a particular load at a particular distance. No just the barrel to the sight but the barrels to each other. change the bullet, powder, load, etc an it's off.

    Yep, in Africa doubles were backed up by several others with guns too. Doubles were used in the first place because the second shot was available without moving your hand off the action and 100 years ago they were more reliable than bolt guns in the big magnum calibers.

    It's one of those things that sounds nifty but they'd sell 3 of in this day and age.
     

    bstewrat3

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    I have sold a few old SxS shotguns to a guy who is going to build them into rifles for 357 magnum and maximum. I am hoping he figures it out, so I can have an old Purdey hammer gun built into a 45 Colt.
     

    two70

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    I have sold a few old SxS shotguns to a guy who is going to build them into rifles for 357 magnum and maximum. I am hoping he figures it out, so I can have an old Purdey hammer gun built into a 45 Colt.

    There used to be a company, I don't know if they are still in business or not, that made adapters for shotguns that would allow you shoot a large variety of handgun rounds and even a few rifle cartridges. IIRC, they were available in chamber length on up through about 18" and in pairs for use in SxS shotguns.
     

    Hookeye

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    MC Ace made adapters. Not really long enough to be more than novelty IMHO

    Was maybe a German place that made adapters, expensive ones..like over a grand.

    But that proly to skirt the hassle of permit. Looked a while back and couldn't find the site.

    EAA had some .45-70 inserts at one time
     

    Hookeye

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    Was some write up about the more commonly known adapters, how they werent just drop and go, they required experimentation to get em to usable ( rotation/ alignment ).

    The euro stuff of $$$ was obviously in a different league, had some adj at muzzle, wasnt just an O ring iirc
     
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