The Double Rifle but Here He Also Traces the History and Development of What Many People Regard As the Most Desirable of Weapons
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The roml.nce of THE DOUBLERIFLE By Tony Sanchez-Ariffo The author is still an active professional hunter and yet is old enough to have been involved in culling and control of buffalo, rhino and elephant in the years following World War II. He is therefore well qualified to point out the advantages of the double rifle but here he also traces the history and development of what many people regard as the most desirable of weapons. Despite my forty-six years as a profes- grooves(the "PurdeyTwo-Groove Rifle") who saw and studied the guns brought sional elephant hunter in Africa, having mostly in the .400and .500bore. This sys- over to the 1851 Great Exhibition in seenhundreds of weaponsand usedmany tem allowed for a great increase in the London by Lefaucheux. Within a few of them, every time that I get in my hands velocity of the bullet by using a heavier months he had produced a double bar- a double rifle my mind always asks the powder chargeas the grooveswere wide relled pinfire gun with tilting banels same silent question: "What fantastic his- and deepenough to preventthe lead strip- which was a vast improvementon every- tories would tell to us if he were able to ping the rifling, as had formerly occurred thing that had gone before, and the other speak.. .?" with bullets travelling too fast up the bar- gunmakersquickly took up the challenge. No doubt that the double rifles are the rel to be held by the rifling. This great During all this time the classicpercussion most sporting and romantic rifles among increasein velocity and consequentflat- muzzle-loading rifle continued in use all the weapons employed by the yester- tening of the bullet's trajectorycoincided becausethe sportsmenwere reluctant to day and today's big gamehunter, amateur with the introduction on the railways of give up a weapon which had been or professional, specially developed for the so called "ExpressTrain", which was employed for a long time with positive sporting hunting purposes with no con- also much fasterthan its contemporaries. results, accurate and powerful, for one nection with military weapons, like the and the term of "Express" was applied to which was so far firing the comparatively bolt action for instance. single and double barrelled sporting rifles weak pinfire cartridges and for which the The double barrelled rifle was createdand capable of firing accurate shots at long referred cartridgeshad to be specially pro- establishedin Britain between 1830 and range with flat trajectories.With the intro- vided, insteadof the easily availablepow- 1840, when deerstalking become fashion- duction of the magazine repeating rifle in der, wadding and bullet required for the able in Scotland.Until then the single bar- the 1890's the term "Express" was con- percussionrifle. rel rifle was exclusively used but, fined mainly to double rifles, a tradition This situation held for another decade, recognising the need of a quick second which haslasted ever since.Originally the until 1861,when GeorgeDaw introduced "Express shot in case of a wounded animal, the entire term Train Rifle" was the centre-fire cartridge which completely gunmakers tumed to the double-barrelled used, but soon it becameforeshorlened to revolutionisedthe world of sporting and "Express", rifle built on similar lines to the double- the single term of which we military weapons.The new system pre- barrelled shotgun already in current use. still use today for the general designation dominated to such an extent Ihat muzzle- Thus was born the weapon which has of the double rifles. loading firearms were quickly rendered beenthe test of the gunmaker'sskill ever Guns which opened at the breech and obsoleteby it. The enormouscompetition sinceand which has displayedthe highest dropped the barrels downward to allow a between gunmakers to design something talent of the gunmaker throughout its cartridge to be inserted had been invented new was in full swing at this time, with development. The history of the double by the Paris gunmakers Houillier and the result that within fofiy years the per- rifle has always been closely allied to that Casimir Lefaucheux but, these guns, cussion muzzle-loading rifles had been of the shotgun, although two stepsbehind because of their fragility, could not be replaced by modern hammerlessejector it. fired with heavy loads and therefore could double rifles, more or less as we know When the double rifle first appearedit was only be built as shotguns. The cartridge them today. a percussion muzzle loader, as were all consisted of a simple cardboard tube in a For dangerousbig game hunting muzzle- the weapons at the time. Loading was completely closed metal base from which loading rifles were still produced even quite a lengthy process:First the powder, a pin protruded o! one side, the other and throughthe 1860's,usually 8-boreand 4- then the wadding followed by the bullet being seatedin a percussioncap detona- bore which allowed the use of enormous and finally all were duly rammed home tor. When thOgun was loaded the pins fit- powder charges.In generalthe S-borewas with a loadingrod. Percussioncaps were ted into notches in the upper edge of the in more common use. while the 4-bore then fitted to the nipples of the breech breechand the gun, when closed,holding was employedalmost exclusively for ele- which connecteddirectly with the powder them upright in the way that the hammer phant hunting. The first metallic cartridge charge.The percussioncap was similar to of the gun struck down on the pin, which of the 4, 8 and l0-bore rifles appearedin a minute copper thimble and contained in was pushedinto the baseof the percussion 1870. The caseswere made of brassand its base a compound which exploded cap, setting offthe detonation and the car- were available with a variety of bullets to when struck by the external hammers of tridge charge. The early pinfire suit the type of game hunted. This really the rifle. breechloaders made little impact on the marked the end of the muzzle-loading era, The popular term of "Express", which is sporting scene at the time as they were although a few die-hards continued to use the normal designation for the double crudely built, expensive and still in the them for a number of years afterwards, rifle, originated with the famous London experimental stage, whereas the percus- like the famous hunter-naturalistSelous gunmaker James Purdey "The Younger", sion muzzle-loaderhad reachedthe pinna- who continued using the 4-bore gun for who was constantly making innovations cle olperfection. many years more. and improvements to rifled weapons. In However, the possibilities of the pinfire The new breech loading guns became the 1856 he began building weaponswhich systemhad beenrecognised by the British traditionalrifle for dangerousgame in were rifled with only two opposing deep gunmakers, starting with Joseph Lang Africa and Asia due also to a double cir- cumstance:In those days the heavy and weaponscontinued to be madefor another tains a spare foresight and the Anson powerful bolt actionrifle didn't exist at all twenty years, their heyday was over by push-rod system fitted to fore-ends and for the other hand the double barrelied 1890and the hammerlessgun had cometo instead of the lever fore-end which was rifles came to perfection at the same time stay. current until the turn of the century. as the great era of exploration, colonial In the middle 1890's double rifle design The basic hammerlesssidelock gun was conquerorsand great tropical hunts leav- divided into boxlock and sidelock types, developedby the firm W&C. Scott & Son ing behind them the most vivid tales of the latter being reservedfor the best qual- of Birmingham (England)in 1878,maybe their use and successin the pursuit of ele- ity weapons while the boxlock actions with the help of the invention introduced phant, tiger, rhino, buffalo, etc., which were usedfor rifles of lower prices.While by Murcott in 1871with the first hammer- was the basefor the romantic aura always boxlock rifles can standup to hard use,in less double gun. The new, system was presentwith the doublebarrel rifles. Who sidelocks the trigger pulls are often such a great innovation that it was taken has not dreamed when perusing old hunt- crisper and more easily adjustedand the immediately by the famous gunmakers ing books showing the hunter on top of a locks aremore accessiblefor cleaningand Holland & Holland of London who. after big elephantor by the side of two dead general overhauling, not to mention the adaptingand improving it, marketedit in tigers with his doublerifle in a prominent beauty of the gun where the artist can do 1879 as the "Climax Safety Hammerless positionin the picture? themost fantastic engravings. Gun". Then in 1885 they introducedthe As pointedout earlierthe developmentof From about 1900 the double rifle has "Royal HammerlessGun", which by 1893 the sporting double rifle tended to follow hardly alteredin any essentialdetail. The was fitted with ejectors.By the turn of the those of the shotgun but always some style of finishing has changeda little, but century the definitive "Royal" was being years behind, due to the higher pressures the basic mechanism has remained the built and this, with minor modifications, involved in rifles and the consequent same.Examples of designchange are the is essentiallythe samegun that Holland & necessity for the proper strength and modernuse of shortribs for mountingthe Holland builds today, both shotgunsand expectedreliability. In 1871the gunsmith foresight and rearsight instead of the full doublebarrel rifles. Theophilus Murcott introduced the first lengthbroad file-cut rib which has always The "Boxlock Hammerless Action" or hammerlessdouble barrel gun of signifi- been fitted in the early days, the use of a "Anson & Deeley" system was patented cance and, even though superb hammer trappedbox in the pistol grip which con- in 1875.named after its two inventorsMr.