Each to his own.

The recoil of a 9 pound 450/400 shooting a 400gr bullet at 2150 is 50 ft pounds at 18 fps(?felt more as a heavy push).With a 10 pnd gun (scope added)this falls to 40pnds.Should this be a problem for most big bore shooters at the moment of truth? My 500NE at 10.25 pnds generates 85 ft pnds at 23 ft/sec and it seems quite managable.

If a Double gun with stronger modern steels could tolerate a diet of hotter loads safely a 450/400 with a 400gr at 2250 the recoil would increase back to 50 pnds with a scoped 10 pound gun and make the gun more flexible at distance.Compare that to a 10 pound 416 Rigby bolt with a 400 @ 2400-60 ft pounds at 19fps.

The sad fact is that when we go to africa we are not going to shoot our rifles as much as earlier hunters.Again I am ignorant about Doubles but feel that a 450/400 9 pound Double that swings and points great would be a joy to hunt with.Indeed I wouldn't mind a quick pointing 8.5 pound quality rifle!!