Double Rifles

[Soundguy]

wow.. nice pics guys, thanks for posting.

[MT Chambers]

I bought a Baikel/Remington in 30-06, I wanted to buy the 45/70 but couldn’t find one. I wanted to practice with as I have a Markell in 470 Nitro, and the 45/70 would be a lot cheaper. The 30-06 locks up hard using factory 180 cartridges but not with 150 gr. I started casting and powder coating for my 470, it just works better

Boy your Markell sounds a lot like my Merkel.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

As I was probably posting while you were writing, it's a 16ga x (most likely) 11.15x60R it dates about 1910-1912 approximately.

A little more close up:



In that one you can see the poorly replaced trigger guard as well.

Go on, you know you want to! Your hands will look like you will never play the violin again. But why would you play the violin when you can shoot one of those? It's a fine rifle, which looks like it has a little more depth of metal in the action bar than a shotgun. The back-action locks leave more than a barlock or boxlock too. This is a worthwhile precaution with traditionally made guns, but far less significant with modern investment cast alloy steel.



It might have had the Germanic horn grip like mine, a Bohemian Kehlner of Prague double muzzle-loader which had probably spent most of its life as a 14ga smoothbore. The giveaways were a knob parked on the butt to be screwed onto the ramrod, and a single set trigger which probably nobody had noticed in something over a century. I relined it with rifled tubes from Track of the Wolf, and it regulates pretty well with bullets from a .50-70 Government mould.



It is usually found that altering the powder charge doesn't much alter the convergence or divergence of the barrel. If it recoils more, the bullet exits sooner. Altering the bullet weight is much more likely to help.

[sharps4590]

Wow...except for the trigger guard it's even more lovely in the close up!!! 11.15 X 60R is a fine cartridge in my opinion but I admit to a prejudice. Dealing with only one barrel I hope your load work up is a lot easier than mine was!!!!

[texasnative46]

NoZombies,

I LIKE.

yours, tex

[NoZombies]

It might have had the Germanic horn grip like mine...

That's a lovely gun! and I think it did have a horn grip similar to yours, there are remnants and clues to that.

[NoZombies]

Wow...except for the trigger guard it's even more lovely in the close up!!! 11.15 X 60R is a fine cartridge in my opinion but I admit to a prejudice. Dealing with only one barrel I hope your load work up is a lot easier than mine was!!!!

NoZombies,

I LIKE.

yours, tex

Thank you both, it's a real pleasure to look at, and I'm hoping it turns into a pleasure to shoot!

[texasnative46]

NoZombies,

I wish you the BEST of luck in working up a load for, shooting & hunting with your nice CAPE-GUN.
(Yours & the one that I'm looking at are quite similar.)

yours, tex

[Rick B]

Hope you have many rewarding days at the range. Looking back to the mid to 80's, I regret not keeping a fine double rifle I once owned. Was living in Alaska at the time, a friend and I flew to So. Ca. for the Great Western Gun Show. 4000 tables, 6 miles of tables. Took all three days to make it through. Managed to walk the whole show, without buying a gun. On Monday we hit a couple of local shops. After the third try we asked the shop owner about older guns, he told us to drive to Lancaster out in the desert and visit Jack First's shop. Roughly a two hour drive. We had about 5.5 hours before our return flight departed. So time was tight. We hit the shop at a dead run, first ten minutes was a disappointment. Turned to go down the next isle and stopped dead in my tracks. This rack had over a dozen English Doubles and a handful of large caliber Single Shots. Turns out they had just returned from a buying trip in Africa. Wish I would if had more time and money that day. Clearly remember two Alexander Henry Single Shots in 450-3 1/4" BPE. The Doubles were mainly Black Powder Express Under Lever Hammer Guns. These were working rifles by second tier makers in various forms of condition. One in particular stood out, it was a S W Silvers London Address in 500 3 1/4 BPE. A plain gun with better than average original finish, very intact and with extremely good bores. It was priced at 800.00, that went back to Alaska that day. Shot the rifle considerably, it was a performer.
Rick

[BigEyeBob]

Ive owned a number of English double rifles over the years , 25 years ago they were cheap to buy due to the lack of available ammunition .Most of mine have been moved on due to financial difficulties ,but were sold when the resurgence of the big game calibres started . BELL made brass and it was easy to get ,so reloading and finding the correct loads was time consuming .I have one double rifle left , Its a Charles Boswell in 500BPE , a fine well made rifle that shoots both barrels to the same point of impact at 60yds ,I load Nitro for black and use cast and jwords .I also have two Boswell sxs shotguns ,one a pidgeon gun ,and the other a game gun , both well made and in very good condition .I enjoy shooting the rifle and the shotguns very much.