Best English double rifle, anyone?

[tac]

Me shooting a 'Best English' double rifle in .450x3.25"BPE last Sunday - details in the text.

tac's guns - .450BPE Part 1 - YouTube

One movie with BP and one with nitro - both 'chicken' loads.

The rifle is NOT mine, sad to say, but I thought you might like to see it anyhow.

tac

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[Bon Sauvage]

How fun is that! Under lever, back action....who is the maker?

 

[tac]

The maker is James Purdey. Glad you liked it, so do I, especially as it cost more than my current set of wheels - a Mercedes-Benz station wagon. Still, as the owner notes, you can't take it with you.

$12 a shot makes shooting it a rare treat...and we got through forty-seven of 'em that day. :O

tac

 

[Sturmhimmel]

Neat. Wonder why no one makes anyone side x side rifles stateside.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

A Purdey, what a treat tac! I have a .45-70 double thats a little cheaper on the wallet to shoot. It was made by an excellent builder that was doing reproductions for a documentary on Africa and I happened to fire and fondle one during my visit, and then something came over me and I just had to have one. Double trigger, double barrels at once,,,, what a kick! There's been a few Elk that sleep with the fish since then, thanks to that old Jarhead Colonel who built it for me.

 

[tac]

Glad you guys over there in the state that G*d made still appreciate a fine peice of old world craftsmanship. The owner has a nice collection of older and obsolete calibre firearms, and that, my friends, is a real bonus here in yUK - and THEY are few and far between where guns are concerned. Y'see, the UK Home Office list of obsolete calibres streches from here to there and back, and the point about the guns is that without factory ammunition available, ANYBODY over the age of 18 can buy ANYTHING obsolete.

There is, of course, a downside, this being the yUK.

You cannot shoot any of them, ever, without getting them on your gun license, called an FAC here. And to get your gun license you have to be a full-time-served member of a gun club........I'm pretty certain that I've explone the hoops and paper-trail for THAT one.

Still, it means that John and other keen shooters like him can make their own ammunition, thanks to people like Bertam Brass, and share the fun with other shooters, too. Another fan of obsolete calibres here shoots the 1871/84 Mauser, a Werndl, a Braendlin-Alberni and a few others for which ammunition has to be made, rather than bought. See tac's guns - shooting the 11mm Mauser and other stuff.

Needless to say, I've probably got as many gun stories as any of you luckier guys, having been a shooter for sixty-one years now [I started at age six, shooting at Wales across the Irish Sea with my dad's M1911]. Regardless of rumours to the contrary, the UK is NOT a gun desert, as the 140,000 visitors to the Stoneleigh gunshow earlier this year would readily testicate.

Best to all

tac, missing Oregon bad

 

[tac]

Re post #4 - There is - an American gentleman makes doubles in most useful calibres, a process that can be seen in full on the internetty. Trouble is, I can't recall either his name or website.

Whereas it's true to say that you don't need to be Mr Trump to afford one of his beautiful creations, you still need to be somebody for whom foodstamps are strangers.

Don't overlook that Baikal makes 'em, too - see my American pal Cole - on his way to Namibia as I write this for a three-week HSF safari - shooting his Baikal DR converted to a more readily unavailable metric calibre

Best

tac

 

[Bon Sauvage]

While in the Submarine Service I was stationed in Hawaii for 11 years (I know, what a killer, eh?) While there I bought a double 45-70 that was everything a double rifle SHOULD NOT be. Whoever had made this rifle had sleeved a Stevens 311 12 bore and filled the barrel gaps with solder. Talk about heavy. Good Lord! The barrels weren't regulated so I sighted the right hand barrel for dead on at 50 yards and used Kentucky windage for the left barrel that shot high and to the left with the same sight. It worked quite well for hunting pigs on the Big Island.

About 1985 I went to a gun shop on Oahu and saw they had a Westley Richards .470 NE double on consignment. I held it and nearly wept. It was perfectly balanced. When I shut my eyes and threw it to my shoulder and then opened my eyes I was looking straight down the sights every time.

As I recall they wanted $5,000 for it. Being a swabby with a wife and two small children this rifle was well beyond my means. Sigh. It finally sold for around $3,000.

 

[hermannr]

While in the Submarine Service I was stationed in Hawaii for 11 years (I know, what a killer, eh?) While there I bought a double 45-70 that was everything a double rifle SHOULD NOT be. Whoever had made this rifle had sleeved a Stevens 311 12 bore and filled the barrel gaps with solder. Talk about heavy. Good Lord! The barrels weren't regulated so I sighted the right hand barrel for dead on at 50 yards and used Kentucky windage for the left barrel that shot high and to the left with the same sight. It worked quite well for hunting pigs on the Big Island.

About 1985 I went to a gun shop on Oahu and saw they had a Westley Richards .470 NE double on consignment. I held it and nearly wept. It was perfectly balanced. When I shut my eyes and threw it to my shoulder and then opened my eyes I was looking straight down the sights every time.

As I recall they wanted $5,000 for it. Being a swabby with a wife and two small children this rifle was well beyond my means. Sigh. It finally sold for around $3,000.

My FIL had a Purdy double. I never had the opportunity to shoot it before he died, and shortly after he died, but before the estate could be settled, that Purdy, and all of his other unusual guns were stolen. He was Dutch, but owned quite a few English firearms.

 

[unklekippy]

I only shoot my Holland & Holland double in .600 Nitro when on safari. It cost me $90,000, and my Purdey is the one I use in Texas, as it was only $48,000.

Seriously though, I have a Savage 42 in .410/22lr that's great for thinning rabbits and squirrels on my property.

 

[unklekippy]

Re post #4 - There is - an American gentleman makes doubles in most useful calibres, a process that can be seen in full on the internetty. Trouble is, I can't recall either his name or website.

Whereas it's true to say that you don't need to be Mr Trump to afford one of his beautiful creations, you still need to be somebody for whom foodstamps are strangers.

Don't overlook that Baikal makes 'em, too - see my American pal Cole - on his way to Namibia as I write this for a three-week HSF safari - shooting his Baikal DR converted to a more readily unavailable metric calibre

Best

tac

A Baikal double in .30-'06 would be a fine bear gun in my opinion.

I always wanted to save my pennies and to Africa. I had dreams of buying a .375 H&H just for the trip. Then I broke my back. At 33 I had to shelve my dreams of finding my inner Elmer Keith. I seriously planned on doing it. It's been a depressing ride, but maybe some day I could do a plains safari from a truck and take a nice Kudu, Gemsbok and Wildebeest. A .375 is definitely out of the question, but a 6.5 Swede or '06 will do the job. There will be no Buffalo, Hippo, Lion or Elephant. Who knows, maybe a treed Leopard could happen.

I love reading about Rhodesia and what a great place it once was. That Africa is long gone. Maybe javelinas in Texas with a .357 mag isn't so bad after all. I hope all you lucky fella's that do make it to Africa What an amazing hunt that would be.