MauserRifle, The selector switch you speak of was on most of the older Heyms, the one I had was so equipt. I liked the selector on my Heym, but the early ones had problems, with sometimes working, and sometimes not, and most were disabled, by the owners. If it works properly I would love to see it on all Merkel S/S doubles, and even better, a retro-fit on the existing ones. The ejectors on my 9.3X74R 140.1E kicks the empties 20 feet behind me, but are well timed, because if you find one of your cases, the other one is usually within a foot of it!

The Safari models (375H&H,416 Rigby, 470NE, and 500NE) are all extractor rifles, with non-auto safeties, and are equipt with one standing, and one flip up express sight. The standing is a 50 yd sight, while the flip up is for 100 yds. The actions are Anson& deeley, with cocking indicators on all. On the 140.1 which is 9.3X74R down have auto selective ejectors, and auto safeties, the sights are one standing for 100 yds. The 140.1, and 140.2 Safari are both S/S rifles with double triggers. All the S/S rifles are Chopper-lump, cold hammer forged, Krupp barrels.

The only thing I have found that needs doing,on any Merkel, is, the front trigger on my 9.3 was about 10# pull and had to be lightened. On my 470NE the triggers are very fine, but I bought this rifle used, so it may have had trigger work done. The 470NE has taken two elephant, and two Buffalo, not my me, but by Byron, the former owner. The other thing is, they all need to have a good recoil pad installed. Mine have a Pachmayr decellarator, on the 9.3, and a Kick-ese on the 470NE. I was told that the solid butt plate was done so the customer could adjust the length of pull when he installed the recoil pad. That was good thinking IMO, on any off-the-shelf, one size fits all rifle, but especially on a double rifle.

My only nit-pick with Merkels is the roll on engraveing! IMO, the rifles should be offered with no engraveing at all, and only a choice of Case-colored, or satten finish. My 140.1 (9.3) weighs in at 8.2 lbs, and my 140.2 (470NE) weighs in at 10.7 lbs. They both handle almost exactly the same as my Britt doubles, with the little 140.1, 9.3X74R, handles like a fine 410 shotgun, and is very accurate! The bigger one handles like just about every other 470NE I every shot.

I am of the opinion, one should believe 30% of what he hears, and only 50% of what he sees, where double rifles are concerened, untill he owns one and hunts with it.