welcome to the forum, I'd suggest for you to handle as many double's as you can, hell you could drive to henderstots from your location and at least get to feel of a couple of doubles, i'd say for this being your first double, i'd recomend you buy new, if you buy used, make sure you have it inspected by someone who KNOWS double rifles. that said, i don't think you'd go wrong with either a merkel or a searcy, you should be able to pick up a basic merkel for around 8k give or take a few hundred, and lance from hendershots is great to deal with, but so is butch. his ph will run 9500.00, its all on what you can afford, fit, and feel. butch will make a rifle to fit you, or if you know your LOP you can have GSI put a pad on the merkel to your lenght. good luck on your quest, its alway fun shopping for a double.