As to favourite maker, that's a hard one. Too many good ones. The Jeffery stuff is very good, but is usually severely plain, too much so for my taste. Hollands are very nice, but since they haven't got it yet, I doubt they'll ever learn how to make an express sight. I'm a fan of the Westley droplock, but WR is almost as confused abouts sights as Holland is.

I'm not a sidelock guy - just never been able to warm up to 'em. Since most of the pre-war Brit boxlock double rifles weren't built by the makers that retailed them anyway, name doesn't mean a great deal to me. There are at least a couple dozen that are fine. I like Rigby, Evans, Gibbs, Boswell, Army & Navy, etc. I buy only British pre-war.

No other caliber has the magic of the .450/.400. After it my preferences would be .500/.450, 450 No. 2 and .476 WR in that order (I do like the mediums though). The .470 has no soul.

No, I've never had one double on me, but I've seen it done a number of times. It was always the shooter's fault. Shooters new to heavy doubles tend to strum the triggers like guitar strings and blame the rifle. If you don't learn how to keep your trigger finger mounted on the front trigger during the recoil impulse of the right barrel, you'll get double tapped.

I'm not convinced that sidelocks have the best investment growth potential. When I got started, conventional wisdom had it that sidelocks in .465 and .470 were the way to go. Since then, such rifles have not yet doubled in value, as nearly as I can tell. Nice boxlocks in some calibers have almost tripled.

Searcy doesn't make double rifles. They make railroad ties.
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