The Double Rifle: Keeping The Old Classic Well Fed

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American Butch Searcy, in Boron, California, has probably made more double rifles than any other gunsmith. Early Searcy guns, on shotgun actions, were simple and affordable. I remember his ads from 40 years ago, when the double rifle was almost dead. The slogan was “the dream of a double.”

It was a perfect message. If we’ve read our Ruark, we must dream of a close encounter with a Big Nasty, stopped with a big-bore double rifle. Spot-on, but too late for me. I’d already drunk the Kool-Aid. As a youngster, I read the classics, became obsessed by Africa, and knew that a double rifle was an essential tool. But I couldn’t afford one when I went on my first safari to Kenya in 1977.

Using a bolt-action .375, I wounded my first buffalo. We always blame the rifle or cartridge, right? I know now it was my fault. Enough gun, poor shot placement. Took time to accept, so I kept dreaming the double. Soon, I traded for a worn but serviceable John Wilkes double .470.

Let’s talk about my first buffalo with a double, that rifle, on the Bubye River in then-Rhodesia. We found a lone track, followed it endlessly, caught the buffalo moving through an opening at 90 yards. With the .470 steady on sticks, the buffalo dropped to the shot, pole-axed. Wow, a big double was the answer! Perfect result, wrong message. My 500-grain solid centered the neck two feet left of my hold. More interesting, the entrance wound was the exact profile of a .470 bullet—sideways. We walked it back and found there was an unseen and centered finger-thick sapling, enough to turn even that big bullet.

Multiple lessons here. Like many of my generation (and most who’ve followed), I grew up hunting with a scope. I had advantages. I learned to shoot with an open-sighted .22, shot smallbore in college, and qualified Marine Corps “expert” with aperture sights for 30 years. Despite this experience, that buffalo was my first animal with iron sights. Even with the great vision of youth, I didn’t see that stick. Better lucky than good.

Ninety yards is a simple shot with optics but a long poke with open sights. My eyes aren’t what they were back then. I still use iron-sighted doubles, but my range envelope has shrunk. I must get close and know this is not always possible. Zimbabwe PH Andrew Dawson once said, “Hunters who insist on using iron sights for buffalo must accept they are giving up 60 percent of potential shots.”

The Double’s Allure

The double rifle grew up in the 19th century, before repeating actions housed large cartridges, when the British Empire included the Indian subcontinent and much of Africa. Explorers, soldiers, civil servants, and settlers needed big rifles to deal with all manner of large and dangerous beasts.

The double rifle’s advantage is the instantly available and reliable second shot. Nothing, not even a semiautomatic, is as fast. All repeating actions are faster for the third shot. However, the double’s lifesaving second barrel is ready. Mechanical failures and misfires can happen, but the double cannot jam and cannot be short-stroked.

The primary disadvantages are accuracy and cost. The accuracy issue is real. It is physically impossible to make the two barrels shoot precisely together. The barrels will shoot sort-of together at a certain distance. Inevitably, points of impact will drift apart, or will cross, then separate. We tend to think of double rifles as primarily big bores for dangerous game. Long-range accuracy isn’t a prime concern because dangerous animals are taken at short distances, well within a double’s capability.

But many doubles are made in smaller, more versatile cartridges. European hunters like them for the driven hunts popular over there and the close-range shooting; they love the fast second shot. My buddy Tony Lombardo has a rare Austrian double .30-30, and I have an English double in .303 British. We hunt with them, accepting they are short-range affairs, not as accurate or versatile as any single-barrel rifle.

The double rifle almost disappeared after World War II. Few were made between 1940 and 1990, with older guns getting scarce. You could say the double was brought back by popular demand. More new doubles are produced right now than since 1940, with good makers in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Germany, and other places. However, double rifles are expensive. Even with modern manufacturing, handwork is required, and getting the barrels to shoot together is a time-consuming task. When Rigby was briefly in California, I did some of the regulation shooting. Some barrels came together easily. Others took a lot of trial and error—and burned up hundreds of dollars in ammo.

A basic double might be priced like a fine bolt action from a known custom maker. However, the least expensive double commands about 10 times the price of a Mossberg Patriot, Ruger Hawkeye, or Savage 110 in .375 Ruger. Cost would be insignificant if one absolutely had to have a double to safely hunt dangerous game. Clearly, this is not true. There is nothing that can’t be hunted with a bolt-action .375, and I’ve hunted dangerous game with the rifles mentioned, among the least expensive .375s.

Most African PHs who hunt dangerous game now carry double rifles. It wasn’t always that way. In the day, British Kynoch was the sole source for Nitro Express ammo. In the late 1950s, as the British Empire collapsed, Kynoch discontinued big-bore cartridges. Double rifles were abandoned for lack of ammo. The new, cheap .458 Winchester Magnum became the prevalent stopping rifle. Through the 1980s, I rarely saw a double rifle in Africa.

Today, with fresh ammo and new rifles, dangerous-game PHs have returned to the double rifle. This includes young hunters who can afford them least. However, nobody absolutely must have a double. Historically and today, some prefer bolt actions for their accuracy, versatility, and magazine capacity.

An unavoidable syndrome in African hunting is for us amateurs to admire and wish to emulate our PHs. Naturally, we gravitate toward big-bore doubles, and the dream grows stronger. Harmless, but let’s understand that a PH’s needs for a rifle are different. A PH is responsible for the safety of the party. The rifle he carries must stop the largest animals, but it will only be fired to protect the party, and at close range. I’ve been enamored of doubles most of my life, but I concede we visitors are better served by a scoped bolt action. PHs who carry doubles—and are confident in their use—consider that fast second chance a worthwhile insurance policy, despite the cost.

Shooting the Two-Pipe

Dreaming the double is fun, finally owning one is even better. However, in middle age, now with the funds to scratch that itch, one doesn’t wake up with expertise to use iron sights (or a big-bore rifle) effectively. You’d better make a serious commitment to practice, which is expensive, time-consuming, and potentially painful with a large-caliber double. Learning to shoot any big-bore rifle is not an exam you can cram for. It takes lots of range sessions, and you have to ration the rounds expended at each session. A half-dozen shots may be plenty per session, but know that it’s much easier to acquire a flinch than to cure one.

This article is about concepts, not cartridges, but choices are few. The double rifle does not have strong primary extraction; it needs a rimmed case for the extractor to grab hold of. There are 10 Nitro Express cartridges between .450 and .500. All give similar performance on game and are similar in recoil. Today, the .470 is the most popular, but it isn’t magic. Of the big bores, I prefer the .450-3 ¼" and .500-3", but I have the most experience with .470s. My advice to people dreaming of doubles is this: Unless you intend a lot of elephant hunting, bypass all the big bores and get a .450/.400 (.40-caliber bullet). It’s perfect for buffaloes and adequate for elephants, and it has much less recoil than the .450s on up. You will shoot it more—and you’ll shoot it better.

Doubles are regulated from a standing rest, allowing the body more give than from a seated bench. Up to .450/.400, I shoot off sandbags. With big bores, I avoid the bench, shooting off sticks or offhand. Regardless of position, the double should be fired with the forearm and barrels grasped securely, so the rifle recoils naturally.

Most double rifles are two-trigger guns. That’s considered the most reliable, with more mechanical redundancy. Some shooters have a tough time mastering two triggers. I had a double-trigger side-by-side 12-gauge shotgun when I was 16, so I was comfortable with two triggers before I even dreamed of double rifles. Dad, a sure and fast bird shooter, tried that gun, but for him, it was a single shot because he never learned how to find the second trigger.

Ideally, one fires the front trigger first, then slips the finger back to the rear trigger. This requires less hand movement than the reverse, so it’s milliseconds faster. After you press the front trigger, the rear trigger is somewhat exposed, and it’s possible to trip it during recoil. Trust me, you don’t want that to happen. If it does (certainly more than once), reverse the procedure. Use the rear trigger first, then stretch your trigger finger forward to the front trigger. Although that’s slower, the risk of a double discharge is almost eliminated.

The standard configuration for right-handed shooters is front trigger forward and right, firing the right barrel; rear trigger rear and left, firing the left barrel. Properly, for lefties like me, this is reversed. I had a lovely Krieghoff double .500 that was the only gun I’ve ever used with left-hand triggers. It seemed a great idea, but I was too familiar with right-hand trigger arrangement. With that rifle, I’d fire the first barrel and fumble the reload because I couldn’t remember the left barrel fired first.

Practice must be extensive enough to become completely familiar. Most new doubles have ejectors, but many older guns are extractor-only. Even so they aren’t much slower. Open, turn to the side, elevate the muzzle, and fired cases usually fall out. Either way, practice must include rapid reloading. It looks cool to carry two cartridges between the fingers of your supporting hand, but that impedes proper forearm grip. I’ve found a cartridge belt or jacket loops fast enough. I think it’s more important to know where those next two cartridges are, and how to grab them quickly.

No double rifle is a long-range rig. However, neither accuracy nor range are its greatest limitation. Rather, because that’s what our PHs carry, we who dream the double insist on open sights. This is fallacy. PHs prefer open sights because they’re simple and sturdy—and because they anticipate only close shots.

Optical sights are nontraditional and look ungainly on doubles, but they enhance capability. Honestly, I had to reach a certain age—and my vision deteriorate enough—before I accepted this. Most modern doubles are adaptable to optical sights. I have a low-powered scope on my Sabatti 9.3x74R double, and two buddies have scopes on Sabattis in .450/.400-3". All in the Italian Contessa detachable mount. I’ve taken buffaloes with both of their scoped rifles. It was easy-cheesy. Current Krieghoff and Heym doubles are adaptable to optics. My older Heym .450/.400 was not, so gunmaker J.J. Perodeau milled almost invisible dovetails into the rib behind the rear sight. It now wears an Aimpoint S1 shotgun sight with a bold red dot. The Aimpoint doesn’t increase the range of the cartridge, but it doubles my effective range! After you’ve fulfilled your dream of owning a double, consider mounting a good reflex sight on it.

Feeding the Beast

After supplies of Kynoch ammo dried up, good double rifles were available at laughable prices. Handloading is popular in America, Australia, and South Africa but is uncommon or illegal in much of the world. Handloaders kept the double rifle and its big Nitro Express cartridges alive. In America, RCBS made the dies, Barnes made the bullets, and writer Elmer Keith gave us the load recipes.

When I acquired that Wilkes double .470, I bought (original) Barnes bullets, RCBS dies, and used Uncle Elmer’s loads. Cases were a problem. I hoarded old Kynoch cases, Berdan primed. Jack Lott (of the .458 Lott) showed me how to decap and prime. Berdan primers still exist, but I haven’t messed with them for decades. In the 1980s Jim Bell’s Brass Extrusion Laboratories Ltd. (BELL) offered new Boxer-primed cases, and that was a big step toward saving the Nitro Express cartridges—and the double rifle.

In 1989 Federal Premium brought out new .470 ammo. By then, there were already multiple sources: A-Square, BELL, Mast Technologies. Today, add Hornady, Norma, Barnes, Kynoch, and Westley Richards. Not all the old cartridges are available in factory-loaded ammo, but dies, cases, and bullets exist. Factory ammo is an answer for the most common numbers, but it’s expensive and often hard to find. Handloading is the solution, especially to produce enough ammo to become proficient with this different breed of rifle.

Thanks to the internet, load data is out there. The single most valuable reference is Australian Graeme Wright’s book Shooting the British Double Rifle. Loading for doubles is simple. Just keep in mind that the break-open action is not strong, mechanically trying to unhinge with every shot. The .470 is loaded to about 39,000 psi, two-thirds the pressure of many modern cartridges. Research recipes well and stay conservative, especially with older rifles. My current .470 is a Wm. Evans made in 1906. Older doubles have thinner barrel walls than most new rifles plus century-old steel. I don’t shoot all-copper bullets in older rifles, but there are lead-core options from Hawk, Hornady, Nosler, Swift, Woodleigh, and others.

A double rifle’s barrels tend to shoot together at a certain velocity and bullet weight. New rifles are regulated with current ammo. It’s not necessary to shoot only that load, but echoing that velocity with that bullet weight should get you close. Doubles are usually factory-regulated at 50 or 60 yards. With iron sights or red dots, I shoot my doubles at 50 yards. Good at 50 will be “minute of buffalo” to 100.

With side-by-sides, the center of gravity is in the middle, so upon ignition the right barrel rolls right, the left barrel rolls left. To compensate, the barrels are joined with a slight angle of convergence. Always shoot in pairs. The goal is to get the two barrels printing side-by-side, right barrel on the right, left barrel on the left. Start with milder loads and work up carefully.

In Elmer Keith’s day, slow-burning powders like 4831 were preferred. Jack Lott turned me on to Reloder 15. I’ve used it with various older rifles, converting the original Cordite load at 1.16 x Cordite grain weight = Reloder 15 equivalent. Start lower and work up, but this formula yielded well-regulating handloads for .470, .450-3 ¼", .450/.400-3", and .500-3". More recently, I’ve returned to 4831, getting great results with well-metering H4831SC, which is the propellant Hornady uses in Dangerous Game loads for Nitro Express cartridges.

Barrel time is critical, so when the pairs are spreading, that usually means there is not enough velocity. The fix is to add propellant. If the barrels are crossing, that probably means too much velocity, so reduce propellant. Some doubles, including my old Wm. Evans, are sensitive. To get it right, I worked up and down in half-grain increments. These 26-inch barrels came together with 105.5 grains H4831SC, yielding 2,140 fps. Good enough.

Although the greater weight of the powder charge (over faster-burning propellants) yields more recoil, load density is such that I usually don’t need over-powder wads or filler to ensure the propellant stays down on the primer. Recently, son-in-law Brad Jannenga threw me curves. First, he came up with an 1880s Holland & Holland double in .500 Black Powder Express (BPE). Case dimensions are the same as .500 NE. We had dies and cases. Hawk and Woodleigh make BPE bullets (440 grains for the .500 BPE), and Graeme Wright’s book offers smokeless equivalent loads. I settled on 50 grains of IMR 4198, with about 15 grains of Dacron pillow stuffing to keep the powder down. At 1,750 fps, power is like heavy loads in the .45-70. We achieved surprising accuracy with mild recoil.

Last year, Brad offered another loading challenge with a Westley Richards .577-3" NE. No factory ammo was available anywhere, at any price. I’d never loaded anything over .500 NE and was embarrassed to realize I didn’t have a big enough press for large-diameter dies. I got a big Lee and went to work. This rifle was regulated with 650-grain bullets. Hawk had them in stock, and Wright’s book suggested loads. It took 143 grains of H4831SC to bring the barrels together. It’s not much fun to shoot, but it’s ready for buffaloes or small armored cars.

Always crimp the bullets because big, heavy bullets shift easily. Watch the load density. Lighter loads are tricky, as are larger cases (like the huge 3.5-inch cases for .450 and .475 No. 2). It’s essential to keep the propellant tamped down. Forty years ago, Jack Lott showed me how to cut over-powder wads from sheets of cork. It’s not difficult, but I use compressed Dacron pillow stuffing.

Daunting at first, loading for doubles becomes almost boring. Once regulation is achieved, little experimentation remains. You won’t win benchrest or long-range matches, but you will enjoy your long-dreamed-of double, become more proficient, and be prepared to deliver its fast “one-two” punch when the chips are down. 

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