Gratuitous Gun Pics: Two Double Rifles

We are all, I think, familiar with the concept of restoring-and-modifying a car, such as getting a beater Jaguar XJ6, and fixing it up so that the interior looks as good as it did when new, with leather seats, a walnut dashboard and an exterior paint job that is much better than what British Leyland could do back in the early 1970s.

But instead of trying to restore the haphazard and dare I say opaque intricacies of the of Lucas Electrical Co, you rewire the thing with proper materials and mechanicals, and instead of trying to fix the broken Jag engine, you drop in a decent Murkin small-block 375hp Corvette V8.  Now you have a car that looks like a Jag, but in fact it’s been “fixed” so that you can avoid all the hassles and heartaches of Jaguar ownership.  It’s now a “resto-mod”.  (Jaguar purists may faint now.)

Alternatively, you can restore a car by bringing it to “concourse” condition, using only original (OEM) parts and eschewing any action that may make it look (and perform) any differently from its original fresh-from-the-showroom incarnation.  Most Porsche 356 owners will know exactly what I’m talking about, here.  This is a “restoration with no modifications” job.

And yes, you can do this with guns too, and here are two examples from those evil Merchants of Nostalgic Death at Collectors Firearms.

Gun #1 is a double rifle made in the late 19th century by W.W. Greener and Son, and it’s a monster.

As you can see, this old girl shows all its years, but remains a fully-functional double rifle.  However, it has been carefully re-sleeved to take the excellent .45-70 Government cartridge instead of whatever it used to chamber.  Most of the problem with shooting these old guns is that they are chambered for cartridges of esoteric dimension, e.g. the .400 Nitro Express which I guarantee you will not find at Bubba’s Bait ‘N Bullets on a back road in West Virginia.  But .45-70 Govt?  Oh hell yes, and probably with several different bullet weights and manufacturers withal.

And here’s the thing.  I love me my double rifles — there is a reason why they’re still used on hunts and safaris all over the world, and that’s because you can get two massive bullets into the hide of a Cape Buffalo or lion almost as quickly as using a semi-auto rifle (those double triggers, oh yes sir).

This particular piece of gunny resto-mod even has a fiber-optic sight installed (which does make my mouth resemble an after-lemon bite, but still), because for Gentlemen With Shit Eyesight (like me), we need all the help we can get.  So I could live with that thing, especially if I was loading up some extra-heavy Buffalo Bore monsters in the chambers.

So that’s the Greener double rifle, priced at around $3,750.  Would I take this old warhorse out into the field?  One word:  gimme.

Now let’s look at the “restored” (Porsche 356-style) double rifle up next.

Gun #2 was made by Holland & Holland, also in the dying years of the 1800s, but it’s a different rifle altogether.

You can see that this gun has been restored to showroom condition (by no less than Holland & Holland themselves), and it is an absolute beauty, as you will see anon.

It is still chambered for its original cartridge, the fearsome .450-400 Black Powder Express (BPE) — the numbers standing for a .45-caliber bullet being sent on its way by 400 grains of black powder.  (Makes the old Sharps “buffalo” chambering of .45-120 look kinda anemic, dunnit?)  Here’s a modern manufacture, by Kynoch:


…a box of which caliber is included with the purchase of the rifle.

Now, a gun of this quality, restored by its original manufacturer is not going to come cheap, and the Holland does not disappoint, at $27,500.

But it’s not going to come in a flimsy cardboard box like some Savage or Ruger rifle, no sir.  Instead, you can take this home with you:


(right-click to embiggen)

The case alone is probably worth about $3,000.

When people ask me why I love guns, love talking about them and love shooting them, this kind of rifle is one of the reasons.

It’s beautiful, deadly and of utter quality.  And when it comes to guns with which to hunt the most dangerous of game, I can’t think of a better trifecta than that.


By the way:  that $27,500 is about a quarter of what you’d pay to restore a Porsche 356 to concourse standard.

But we can talk about that dream some other time.

Also:  in case bells are ringing in your head, this is not the H&H Royal Grade ($70k) that I looked at a while back.  Same gun, different grade, and (very!) different price.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Twin Ruger M77 RSI Rifles (.22-250 Rem & .308 Win)

Here’s a $5,000 solution to someone of a practical mind.  Let’s assume that you would like to have a couple of rifles that would do duty on varmints and on medium-sized game.  But you’d like them to be identical in every respect but chambering, so that you would be familiar with both the action, the trigger and the shouldering thereof.

Why not, asks Steve Barnett (Merchant Of Death Extraordinaire), get these two?  Here’s the Ruger M77 RSI in .22-250 Rem (which spells “death to varmints” in no uncertain terms):

…and here’s its twin, in .308 Win (which spells “death to pretty much everything else”):

Yes of course they’re identical:  that’s the whole point of the exercise.  And at under $2,500 each, it seems to me to be a very practical and elegant solution to the “one gun, two calibers” demand made for hunting.

Longtime Readers will also know of my inordinate fondness for the full-stocked rifle, and Ruger’s RSI line fills that to capacity, oh yes it does.

As for the boolets themselves, here’s a comparison (with ballistics):

All that remains is to mount two identical scopes with identical reticles to the above rifles, and the brief is filled, I think, pretty much to perfection:

And yes, I think the term “elegant solution” is entirely appropriate here.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Mauser 1896 “Target” (6.5x55mm)

Anyone who has known me for longer than 30 seconds will be aware of my fondness for the venerable Mauser Model 96 a.k.a. Swedish Mauser, chambered for the excellent 6.5x55mm cartridge a.k.a. 6.5mm Swede.


(That’s “mine”, nicknamed Princess Inge and stolen from me by the Son&Heir, who shoots 1-MOA groups at 400 yards with the iron sights as fitted.  Unfortunately, he loves it as much or more than I do, so I never get to shoot it anymore.)

Truth be told, I prefer it over the German Gew. 98 and the later K98 Mausers — in fact, I pretty much prefer it over any bolt-action rifle ever made.  Ditto the 6.5mm Swede, which when shot out of that 29″ barrel has a flat trajectory and due to its long bullet, boasts exceptional sectional density, which means it’s going to penetrate just about anything it hits, especially if it’s the steel-core Hirtenberg mil-surp ammo.

Anyway…

One of the actions the Swedish Army took over the years was to identify which of the rifles showed exceptional accuracy (out of a group which was already very accurate), and turn them into both scope-fitted sniper rifles (M41b) and designated “Target” rifles.  Here’s an example of the sniper version:

…and from Collectors Firearms, an example of the “Target” version:

The sniper rifle above was purchased for about $1,500 at Collectors (not by me, but by a Reader), but that was back in the early 2000s.  Gawd knows what it would sell for now, because the Target rifle as shown is going for just under $1,300 at the same Merchant Of Death.

Doesn’t matter.  It seems as though all bolt-action rifles of any quality sell for around a grand these days (aaaaargh), but I would suggest that this Target rifle is actually a bargain at that price — because it has proven accuracy and of course, being a Mauser, its reliability is unquestioned.

What a beauty, in every sense of the word.

Want.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: CSMC A-10 American (20/28ga)

Here’s a pretty one from Champlin Arms:

I’ve had a fresh perspective on Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company ever since I watched Jonny do a tour of the place a while ago.

Despite being located in gun-hating Connecticut, it’s a company I’d love to buy from, especially one their top-end RBL shotguns.

Of course, I’d get a side-by-side and not one of those new-fangled O/U things, but still.

…and of course with a double trigger:

But that’s just me;  others may vary.

About That California Thing

…you know, that 10-day waiting period before you can take possession of that gun you just purchased.

Let’s just hope you don’t need that shootin’ iron before then, is all.

Or if you are being robbed and you’re still stuck in that waiting period without a gun, I’m sure that if you explain the situation and ask the burglars / robbers nicely, they’ll go away and leave you alone till the end thereof.

That’s what the CalGov means by “tough shit”, I guess.


(My CA Readers — and why are they still there? — are probably not in that same boat, as I’m pretty sure they’re all, shall we say, adequately armed.)

Carry Trends

Tami Keel talks about the trend in carry guns that she’s witnessed over the years:

The first [competition] I attended, at DARC in Arkansas back in 2017, was largely after the “Caliber Wars” were over. I’m sure there were a few .40s and .45s in attendance, but 9mm was the overwhelmingly most common chambering and it wasn’t even close. I’d feel pretty comfortable stating that probably half everybody was shooting a Glock of one variant or another, with M&Ps being the second most common, and the remainder a mishmash of Sig Sauers, HKs, and Berettas, mostly

Next year TacCon was at DARC again. Glocks were still the most common gun, but probably only a plurality at this point. Sig P320s were already vying with M&Ps as the second most commonly seen pistol. There were a handful of people using red dot optics in 2018, and John Johnston made it into the man-on-man shootoff with one.

At 2019, down in Louisiana at NOLATAC, there were more red dots, and Rick Remington won the shootoff with an RMR atop a 9mm Wilson. Glock alternatives continued to grow in popularity.

After a one-year hiatus during the Plague Year of 2020, TacCon was held at Dallas Pistol Club in 2021. That’s when I first started seeing significant numbers of the smaller pistols, like Glock 48s and Sig P365s. Red dots were commonly spotted in every class and were no longer limited to hardcore dot proponents who’d had pistol slides custom milled for RMRs.

2022 was back at DPC again. Red dots and smaller pistols were everywhere, even in the shootoffs.

2023? More of the same.

For 2024, the biggest difference I noticed was that there was a greater number of people who were willing to talk openly about living “the snubby lifestyle” à la Darryl Bolke. Gear-wise, dots had become downright prevalent. Walthers had become more common. I don’t know how Walther’s doing in terms of overall market share, but they’ve certainly penetrated the serious training hobbyist demographic. The majority of optics were now Holosuns.

All very interesting.  I couldn’t help thinking how my personal carry choices have changed over the same period of time.

2017:

2018:

2019:

2020:


(briefly, then back to the usual)

2021:

2022:

2023:

2024:

I know, this is carry as opposed to competition, but still.  One assumes that the competitive shooters were carrying the same as, or at least copies of the ones they were shooting.  (If not… LOL.)

The only changes I can foresee in my carry choice would be substituting one 1911 for another.

Occasionally, if I’m in the mood, I may carry my bedside S&W Model 65 instead of a 1911, because that’s the holster belted onto a different pair of jeans and I’m too lazy to swap it out:

So you see, I can be flexible.

I’m just not interested in carrying a little gun like a SIG or Walther in 9mm Europellet, unless one day I decide to substitute it for my backup Model 637.

Don’t hold yer breath.


By the way, I typically carry two or four backup 1911 Chip McCormick mags (depending on whether or not I’m wearing a gilet), and a couple of 5-round speedloaders for the 637.  That should be enough ammo to get me back to the car rifle, after which I can really bring down the thunder.

Update:  Several people have written to me, speaking of their preference for hi-cap mags.  One asked me whether the 8-round Chip McCormick 1911 mags would be sufficient in a BLM-type encounter.

I have two responses to this:  firstly, three CMC mags = 24 rounds, five mags = 40 rounds, and three .38 Spec loads = 15 rounds.  If I wanted to get serious, and with a little foreknowledge, I could just swap out the 8-round mags for 10-round CMC mags, of which I have a half-dozen or so on hand.  Should be enough.

Any more than the above, and I probably would avoid going out to where there’s a chance I may be heavily outnumbered — OR I could just turn the trunk gun into a front-seat gun (with several backup mags), if you get my drift.  I venture to suggest that this combination of weaponry would be adequate for any group of scraggly scrotes.