I'm sure the above suspicion is the correct one! There is nothing wrong with his Merkel, he simply has not found "THE" load!

CLARK , first off there are some rules you cannot break when working up loads for a double rifle. The commonly missused term for working up a proper load for a double rifle is "TO REGULATE YOUR RIFLE"! This is not a proper term, and causes some confusion from time to time. Regulation of a double rifle is a physical opperation done by a skilled barrel maker, requireing a heat,solder,a wedge, and some skill. It is the tweeking of the barrels to make the rifle shoot to a "KNOWN LOAD"! Believe it, or not, this is easier than WORKING UP A LOAD TO SHOOT TO THE REGULATION ALREADY IN THE RIFLE!

Working up loads to shoot to the regulation can be a touchy thing for several reasons. First the componants must be as near as they can be to the origenal componants, with the bullets traveling at the same speed. When you do not know these specifications, you must experiment with what is available. First off stay away from Monolithic solids in your double rifle, the exception being the North Fork FP solid, and Cup point solid.

The problem comes to light when you start to load, not knowing what is too hot for your rifle. A double rifle, no matter how new, is still 18th century technology, and is not well suited to high pressure, so start low, and work up very carefully! A double rifle is not the place to go looking for high velocity. Addtionally, for best results, no airspace can be tollerated in the case. so if the powder doesn't fill the case filler is needed! The choice of filler is critical. In most cases the safest is Dacron fiber fill, a pillow stuffing, that is cheap, and can be bought in any fabric store. The filler should be on top of the powder, and just enough so that it is slightly compressed when the bullet is seated! CAUTION: do not, under any cercumstances, place a card wad on top of the powder. The fiber filler will hold the powder in place, so there is no need for card wads at all!

Now that you have four rounds loaded with your beginning load, fire them from a clean cool barrel set. Holding the rifle as you would when shooting off hand. You may rest on sand bags, but only your hand should touch the bag. Hold the rifle in your hand, with your hand resting on the bag. Do not rest the butt of the rifle, but simply hold it against your shoulder. The double rifle absolutely must be allowed to recoil normally, as it would if being shot from a standing position. The free recoiling is what makes the regulation work! Fire the shots in the right, left, right, left sequince, plotting each down as to where it hits the target.

Now if the load is causeing the RIGHT barrel to shoot HIGH, and on the RIGHT, and the LEFT barrel is shooting HIGH, and LEFT, then the load is too light, and needs speeding up! The bullets are spending too much time in the barrels, and exiting too late in the recoil arc, and need speeding up! This will usually be the case when your first light loads are fired on the target!

If the RIGHT barrel is shooting on the LEFT, and LOW, and the LEFT barrel is shooting on the RIGHT, and LOW, the load is too fast, and is exiting the barrels too quickly in the recoil arc! The load needs to be slowed!

The common thought is that all double rifles cross at some distance! This is absolutely not the case! Once a properly regulated double rifle has a proper load found, the barrels will shoot two groups that are actually very close together, and side by side,the distance between the inner edge of each bore apart giveing the impression of a solid composite group, and will continue this side by side flight path as far as they travel. The misconception that they should cross at a given range is what give rise to another misconception that double rifles are only accurate to 100 yds or less!

The quest for a proper load is not an easy trail, to follow, and can get expencive as well, but once found, will work for life, so record the load carefully, and give it to the new owner if you sell the rifle!