Indians For Guns

I'm interested in good Double Barrel Rifles

What type of doubles are you looking for? Caliber choices? Action types? Hammerless or hammered? Many varied examples floating around.

Looking for a double rifle. Preferably in 375 H&H, 416 Rigby etc. Please guide.

Just curious, if you live in India what are you going to use it for ?

Manjot Sidhu wrote:I'm interested in good Double Barrel Rifles

Hi Manjot,

Are you looking for Double (Multi) Barrel Rifle or Double Barrel Shotgun? Double Barrel Shotguns are common in India. You can find many good options. I am from Jammu, J&K. Here we have, Khair-ud-din, Modern Arms, etc. which have good reputation.
If you are looking for Double (Multi) Barrel Rifle, then it is not a easy task. As they are rarely owned in India and most of them will be expensive and old.

Regards
Vikramaditya Singh.

riflemarksman wrote:Just curious, if you live in India what are you going to use it for ?

Well just out of a simple interest, I plan to own and train for shooting with a double rifle and hopefully in the near future go for a safari in Africa.

panzernain wrote:

riflemarksman wrote:Just curious, if you live in India what are you going to use it for ?

Well just out of a simple interest, I plan to own and train for shooting with a double rifle and hopefully in the near future go for a safari in Africa.

Well, in that case in all brobabilities you'd be hopefully provided a double rifle by the pro hunter if you intend going for safari with a reputed safari organizers. How ever, if you do find a good double in india and can afford it then indeed its a fine investment.

Best Of Luck

Marksman

marksman wrote: Well, in that case in all brobabilities you'd be hopefully provided a double rifle by the pro hunter if you intend going for safari with a reputed safari organizers. How ever, if you do find a good double in india and can afford it then indeed its a fine investment.

Best Of Luck

Marksman

That's right, most safari organizers provide rifles too, but would love to acquire one of my own as well.

I have seen old double rifles in our local gun shops going for as little as Rs 50,000 the price is low because getting the ammo is a problem and they were in bad condition .....also they were very heavy about 10 to 12 kg each....I don't remember the brand

panzernain wrote:Looking for a double rifle. Preferably in 375 H&H, 416 Rigby etc. Please guide.

.416 is a rimless cartridge and as such finding a double chambered for it is not going to be easy for you.The new Rigby company offers it but that costs in excess of £120,000. There still are several double rifles floating around in India. Who knows, you can get lucky.

Vikram wrote:

panzernain wrote:Looking for a double rifle. Preferably in 375 H&H, 416 Rigby etc. Please guide.

.416 is a rimless cartridge and as such finding a double chambered for it is not going to be easy for you.The new Rigby company offers it but that costs in excess of £120,000. There still are several double rifles floating around in India. Who knows, you can get lucky.

Oh. I was not aware of this fact on 416 Rigby. Thanks for the info. But that also means that I can find a bolt action in the specific calibre. In such a case, any idea what would be the prevalent price of these big bore bolt actions?

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riflemarksman wrote:I have seen old double rifles in our local gun shops going for as little as Rs 50,000 the price is low because getting the ammo is a problem and they were in bad condition .....also they were very heavy about 10 to 12 kg each....I don't remember the brand

Can you specify which dealer you visited?

Once when I visited Indore (MP) I went to this gun dealer and he had these double rifles, I think the name was Indore Gun House......

I would go with a good bolt action .375 any day, it would carry more rounds and it would be half the price. Doubles were OK for black powder era, with smokeless powder even smaller calibers are effective.

People have shot grizzly bears using .22 short with right bullet placement which is more important than caliber.In reality size does not matter, it's how you use your weapon.

riflemarksman wrote:Once when I visited Indore (MP) I went to this gun dealer and he had these double rifles, I think the name was Indore Gun House......

Thanks a lot for the info.

panzernain wrote:Oh. I was not aware of this fact on 416 Rigby. Thanks for the info. But that also means that I can find a bolt action in the specific calibre. In such a case, any idea what would be the prevalent price of these big bore bolt actions?

I am sorry, I have no idea about prices. There is an increased interest in really big bore rifles and people want silly money for them. Keep trawling gun shops and your networks and it is possible to get lucky. Good luck.

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Timnorris wrote:Doubles were OK for black powder era, with smokeless powder even smaller calibers are effective.

People have shot grizzly bears using .22 short with right bullet placement which is more important than caliber.In reality size does not matter, it's how you use your weapon.

There is some evidence that someone in Africa killed elephants with .22short. Where allowed, cattle are routinely killed with .22LR. Killing with smaller cartridges can be achieved in certain conditions. WDM Bell AKA Karamoja Bell shot many elephants with 7X57 and 6.5X54. However, he knew elephant anatomy with the precise knowledge of a surgeon and knew how to brain them. Several hunters perished in trying to do what Bell achieved with smaller calibre rifles. Double rifles were used for a purpose, i.e., against dangerous game at close quarters.

Before the advent of nitro cartridges, large bore BP cartridges were in vogue. The rifles chambered for these cartridges, such as 10,8 or4 bore, were very heavy and punished at both ends. There even were 2-bore rifles. Nitro cartridges allowed for lighter rifles, relatively smaller bullets and yet highly effective. When we say small, we are talking in comparison to the 8 or 4 bores. A 4-bore bullet weighed around 1882 grain and made around 1330 FPS. It made 7,400 Ft/lbs. The 8-bore used a 1,250 grain bullet and an 850 grain round ball. Modern nitro big game cartridges use roughly less than half of that size at 500 grain and make around 5000 ft/lbs. Point is, big game nitro cartridges are smaller than their black powder counterparts but they are not small by any measure.

Coming back to double rifles, double rifles are meant for using against dangerous game. If the animal does not die immediately and charges, one has an immediate second shot to stop the charge. Taking on dangerous game with smaller cartridges is asking for trouble. Cheers.