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#15142727 08/17/20
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I’m looking to buy a double rifle as a gift. I have plenty of experience with bolts and shotguns but not double rifles. Looking for tips on good ones. Wanting to stay 20k and under. K guns and blasers look nice. Any suggestions? Thanks!

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PM sent.


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I've owned a number of doubles. Mine have all been 9.3 or smaller and under $10,000. So no expert with the bigger bores or more expensive guns. Try to get together to a double rifle shoot and shoot a couple different guns. Short of that, go to some shops and shows and at least handle some. For the investment it will be time well spent.
Think about how you hope to use it. Dangerous game only, or mixed bag hunting, open sights or scoped or mixed.
I have decided that fit is critical. My current Chapuis fit me perfectly until I had some serious body repairs over the last two years. I've lost significant length of pull and whatever you call the space from your palm to the joint in your trigger finger. Now it is difficult for me to shoot it at all, let alone well, and the wood is just too ni kikce for me to chop it off and make it useless to anybody with a normal length of pull. So I'll probably be need to say goodbye to that one.
Single trigger or double trigger? Doubles are the classic, but i don't shoot them well, so I prefer single triggers. I like ejectors, others extractors. Old English or German, vs new? Lots of arguments for both.
If anything needs repaired on a double, you will need to allow time for repairs. Project doubles are like a free dog, expensive.
Doubles are fascinating and fun. Like bolt guns there are endless arguments about the perfect one. None of those arguments is all right or all wrong, just wonderful differences of opinion.
Just a few thoughts
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Bfly,
Have you tried switching shooting from the opposite shoulder?

I have switched from righty to lefty a couple of times due to eye operations and made it work.


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1. Blasers are an abomination and not real doubles.
2. Merkels have some doubling issues and although solid, pretty much a "low end" double which when you think about it, it's an oxymoron
3. Krieghoffs are well made, precise and tough. I wouldn't own one because of the cocking lever issue
4. Heyms are about as good as it gets, but esthetics are lacking in my opinion
5. Verney Carron (full disclosure, I own one) I did extensive research and handling of all of the above and without question is the best combination of value, form, fit and function and the strongest action.
6. don't know a whole lot bout Chapuis
7. Double gun market is depressed right now because of the Bologna virus, so all of the above can be had for that price, but for 20K, I'd also look hard at second tier English (used of course) double.


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Kirt,
Both Bfly and Jorge have provided good information, so I will just recommend some modern research reading for you:
1. Read the Cal Pappas book, The Double Rifle Primer.
2. Look up on the Internet, the Ellis Brown Custom Shop. Buy and read the W. Ellis Brown book, Building Double Rifles on Shotgun Actions.

I know both of these gentleman shooters and they are quite knowledgeable hunters and shooters and know whereof they speak about double rifles.

Enjoy!


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Kirt, is the gift for you or someone else? Proper gun fit is much more important with a double rifle than with a bolt gun. If not you, is the intended recipient of normal dimensions? That said, for under $20K, I'd personally get a Verney Carron.

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I've had a lifetime of adventure with a lot of bad decisions and more good friends to hold my beer than I deserve. Recent work included right hand rebuilt, torn tendons repaired in my left arm and multiple fusions in my back, so both sides are less than new in the box. I need more work done to both shoulders and my back, but not sure I want to give up another year healing. It's too close to sunset to waste time.
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Kirt, that's a hell of a gift! Will be interested in your choice.

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Sorry forgot to include, not an extremely large caliber, a 375 HH or similar. Thanks

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Jorge, do you know any available? I am from south ga.

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Originally Posted by kirt
Jorge, do you know any available? I am from south ga.

Any what available?


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How about something from Butch Searcy ?


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Originally Posted by jmd025
How about something from Butch Searcy ?

I have handled them. Extremely well regulated, but they are even more ;lacking in aesthetics than the German stuff. way to "clubby' for me


A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
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Thinking of a pair of 375 krieghoff double for me and a friend, decent choice?

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Some thoughts:

- big +1 to everything Jorge said

- call Champlain Firearms and look at their inventory including British doubles

- there are 2 generations of Searcy doubles. Early ones were made on shotgun frames. Later versions on a CNC monobloc.

They are well made, and as Jorge said well regulated.

- caliber plays a big influence in price. 470 and 500s will be pricey. 450/400 are much less, but my favorite


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