I recently read Boddington's "Safari Rifles II" and he mentioned something that made me pause and then do a little research. He mentioned the Merkel double being a little on the light side (10.14 lbs.) and that it had a little more "drop" than he cared for and the net result was that it had more recoil than it had to.

I checked the weight of other makers and found the following;

Heym 10.5 lbs.
Krieghoff 10.5 lbs.
Blaser 11.68 lbs.
Verney-Carron - gave a range up to 16 lbs. for the .600

So granted, Merkel is a little lighter than the others, but is Boddington saying that light weight is the reason or the "drop" or possibly a combination of the two?