Hi all,

Well the time has come and we've taken delivery of our RBD (Ralf Bettina Dauner) Omni-Break in 500 Nitro Express.

The Omni-Break is a hand-built single shot break action designed and made completely by Ralf Dauner and his wife Bettina, who live and work in Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia. Ralf is a trained gunsmith and does all the metalwork while his wife Bettina does all the woodwork including the checkering by hand. The barrel can be removed just like a shotgun, and other barrels of different calibres can be made to use the same receiver, which is where the name Omni-Break came from.

My brother and I both grew up in Africa and we'd become interested in the 500 Nitro Express as a calibre. Our 500 Nitro Express has a 26 inch barrel and shoots the 3 inch cartridges. Ralf and Bettina added a little extra weight to this rifle to help with recoil, and it weighs in at 4.1kg / 9lbs.

We loaded standard 500NE rounds using Aussie-made Bertram brass and the 570gn Bertram projectile, using 103gn of 2209 powder primed with Federal 215s. A big thanks to Chris (Rockdoc) for his help in teaching me how to load this.

Well we took it out today to shoot. I've got a video with a couple of slow-motions that I have uploaded for those interested.

As you will see, the recoil blew my earmuffs off! This was due to me wearing prescription sunglasses combined with muffs that don't clamp very tightly onto my head, but I wear this same combination shooting a couple of un-braked 308s without any issue at all so the recoil of this rifle is several times greater.

Video of our first shoot

For those wondering how much it cost, it's actually pretty affordable (let's face it, at this point in my life with a fairly new mortgage and young kids, I am on a budget). Prices start at $1950 depending what options you choose. Ralf and Bettina were very attentive to our desires and tailored our rifle specifically to suit what we wanted, and we're pretty damn happy with our new toy.

It only took a few shots to get a sore shoulder and a headache going though!

Our locally made rifle sling was finished and we picked it up today. The reason we got a strap made, other than looking the part, is so that other shooters can wrap the strap around their wrists when shooting in case they lose grip of the rifle when shooting it, which is easy to do. This stops the rifle rotating and being dropped into the dirt.

Narelle from 6D Leather took my design concept and turned it into a beautiful rifle strap, including the custom engraving in the leather that I had asked for of the 3 animals this cartridge is designed for - Rhino, Elephant, and Cape Buffalo. It's still brand new so it's quite stiff and the stains will even out a little bit as we continue to massage the oil into it over the next few weeks.

Thanks for looking!