Some years back, I remember seeing an unusual 4-groove percussion double rifle with long-range sights, and at the time, wondered about it's origins. The owner described it as a "Jacobs Patent" and was convinced it had come from India and had been made for military use. To me, the long range sights seemed to indicate that it was not intended for hunting, but it could have been for target shooting?

I knew that Jacobs had offered his rifling design to the Indian Army in 1846, but it was rejected in favour of the Brunswick rifle, which was in service with the British Army. But, none of the references I had indicated whether the design offered was single, or double barreled.

Some years later, I came across a reference in W.W. Greener's book, "The Gun and It's Development, 9th Edition" about Jacob's developments. Curiously, there was no mention of this in Greeners 1st Edition of 1881, which I had originally checked!

It describes how, after being rejected by the Indian Army, and a period experimenting with the Minie bullet, Jacobs went on to develop a double-barrel 32 bore four-grooved rifle with deep grooves and 4/5 turn in 24 inches that was sighted up to 2000 yards with leaf and tangent sights.

This rifle was designed for military use! And it matched the description of the rifle I had seen!

This pre-dated Purdey's Express rifles which did not appear until the mid-1850's and then originally in single barrel guise.

Certainly, ball was shot out of double-barreled "smoothbores" from very early on, but insofar as rifles go, I am not aware of any evidence that indicates one way or another that the first double-barreled rifles were designed for hunting, target shooting, or military use?

Does anybody know for sure???