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Well its personal, so here goes... Holland and Holland - calibre choices .375FL Mag; .500/.450 or .500/.465; .577NE (possibly 2 3/4"?) Purdey - calibre choices .369; .450/.400 Westley Richards D/L - calibre choices .450/.400; .450NE; .470NE; .500NE Calibre choice is difficult and I would try to avoid overlaps in my personal collection, unless I were in the very fortunate position of owning multiples of each ![]() So what is the rationale? Well the WR is not as expensive as the other two, but none the less a collectible classic and important development in DR making. This would be the rifle that I would actually use and would be in a suitable calibre for DG. While I would certainly want to shoot a H&H/Purdey DR, I couldn't see myself putting it in the cargo hold of a plane, especially if it was a rare classic piece. For this reason I'd be inclined towards the .375/.369 because I could shoot and hunt with it closer to home, particularly for driven shoots in Europe that I could drive to by car (or private charter plane ![]() If I were fortunate enough to come across a suitable collectable rising-bite Rigby sidelock from pre-WW2 (or for me preferably pre-WW1, just for personal interest) then I would add this to a collection without hesitation! Ideally it would be a .450NE or .470NE but could equally be in any of Rigby's other wonderful calibres or .303 especially in a sidelever. Also for that matter a pre-WW1 Purdey or H&H .303 ![]() Again its personal, and probably very much coloured by the fact that I'm British, but if were to chose a continental maker, it would either be an O/U double or more likely a Dreiling or break-open single shot. Clearly among the very best are Hartmann & Weiss and Peter Hofer, so assuming that I still had unlimited funds after my purchases above, then how about a Dreiling from one and a single shot from the other? Why did I leave out Boss? No reason - other than with unlimited funds I would have a trio of O/U 28 bores by them!! Also I believe H&W use the boss system on some of their DRs so that could be an option. I haven't left out Peter Nelson, but I confess I don't know all that much about him. Still I will need someone to build my take -down mausers and falling blocks!! ![]() As for engravers - that will take more dreaming.. err I mean research.... ![]() |
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