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boss: a newly started firm

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Is this all a bit of a panic?

If on the other hand you are right, maybe there will be some bargains coming up.

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Following up on another post a question.

Who will cease making Double Rifles in within the next 5 years?

My guess goes to Heym. They have been on a tight rope for a long time.

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mickey - Under new ownership (post 1998), Heym is a lot leaner and a lot more focused in its product offerings than it was then. Its markets and subsequent penetration are also a lot more focused today than they were then. Heym is not as big of a company as it was pre '98, but it is a lot healthier today and much more agile than it has historically been. Double rifles in particular are of renewed interest to HEYM, and I think you'll be surprised at what comes out of there in the next few years.

The European companies that are in the most immediate danger are the small ones that got hung out to dry in the Litt's fiasco. There were some that took pretty big hits over that.

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IMHO, the world will not be right in terms of finance for several years to come

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G'day 9.3, As much as I would like to see further improvement and refinement, are you not describing what Baikal have already done?

Good Shooting, Ian.

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To a degree, yes.

But I am thinking along the lines of "further improvement and refinement" just as you say. In addition, I wonder if the future will bring us doubles that have a non-traditional look about them.

Here's another way of looking at it; The worldwide, commercial gun market is IMO constrained by the fact that for all intents and purposes the makers seek to build and sell guns that fit a very narrow "style" or "art form", styles and forms that have been with us for 100 or more years.

One area where "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" expanded the market was in semi-auto, military type guns. I have to wonder if other style forms might change in the future and new options for the gun buyer might exist. If you look at a typical double, you see a very narrow form of style.

What if design forms from other shooting disciplines entered double gun making? What if for example synthetic stocks entered the double gun market. What about a REALLY quick, easy device to regulate the gun? Or new action types, or truly affordable interchangeable barrels, headspace takeup arrangement of some sort to eliminate hinge wear between barrel setups, Biathlon-type stocking, etc, etc, etc,...

This type of change HAS occured in handgun design in my lifetime already and to some degree in bolt-action hunting rifle design but not yet with doubles.

I'm really brainstorming here, but taking a peek outside the box I see wide horizons!

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What are the Rosary, the Cross or the Crucifix other than tools to help maintain the fortress of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

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What if design forms from other shooting disciplines entered double gun making? What if for example synthetic stocks entered the double gun market. What about a REALLY quick, easy device to regulate the gun? Or new action types, or truly affordable interchangeable barrels, headspace takeup arrangement of some sort to eliminate hinge wear between barrel setups, Biathlon-type stocking, etc, etc, etc,...

This type of change HAS occured in handgun design in my lifetime already and to some degree in bolt-action hunting rifle design but not yet with doubles.

I'm really brainstorming here, but taking a peek outside the box I see wide horizons!

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9,3

most of what you suggest are allready possible, but when the companys can sell all there product capacity, as the traditionel dbl rifles at an elevated cost then why change.

i like progress as much as the next guy, but really dont want to see the changes come to this buisness, as it has done to the rest of the trade, my take on semi-autos and most boltguns are clear to all, mass fabricated chuncks of plastic and steel, proberly good tools but i will never own one again. the only gun not made for warfare is the double rifle, and therefore it has been out of the massproduction circus, it still is an old artform, where real people have to do the work by hand. if it was possible to produce a nice dbl. rifle by machine i predict that the artform will die out withinn a few generations.

i think if you really wanted to see a double rifle in camo plastic and stainless steel, it could be done but you would have to pay extra for it


best of new year to you

peter

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9,3

most of what you suggest are allready possible, but when the companys can sell all there product capacity, as the traditionel dbl rifles at an elevated cost then why change.

i like progress as much as the next guy, but really dont want to see the changes come to this buisness, as it has done to the rest of the trade, my take on semi-autos and most boltguns are clear to all, mass fabricated chuncks of plastic and steel, proberly good tools but i will never own one again. the only gun not made for warfare is the double rifle, and therefore it has been out of the massproduction circus, it still is an old artform, where real people have to do the work by hand. if it was possible to produce a nice dbl. rifle by machine i predict that the artform will die out withinn a few generations.

i think if you really wanted to see a double rifle in camo plastic and stainless steel, it could be done but you would have to pay extra for it


best of new year to you

peter

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Peter:

I'm basically with you, tho I might be a bit more Pro-Choice when it comes to other designs.

I agree 100% about the "tool" aspect of other plastic-fantastic designs. They are, but...they are the product of modern manufacturing, which is exactly what traditional doubles WERE when they were first thought up.

When I was growing up, if a guy strolled on to a rifle range with an AR15, he might very well have been asked to leave. Now...

Scopes were once looked down on. Now...

Plastic stocked bolt rifles were thought to be hideous {...still are... } and never to be owned by true aficionados. Now...

And pistols; I clearly remember the demand for milled steel and walnut grips and REVOLVERS... Now...

My post wasn't a "wish list" but rather an attempt to answer the original question. I think you and I might be on the same page as far as what is appealing to our generation, but what about the next? I don't know, but when Cost + Legislation + Profit Margin + Will to Survive are added up, the answer might...might...be very non-traditional indeed... {???}

Godt Nytår, gamle ven!

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What are the Rosary, the Cross or the Crucifix other than tools to help maintain the fortress of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

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I think you are right about the Savage and I think I read that somewhere in the distant past. I'll bet that Valmet isn't too far behind.

Your comment, 9ThreexFifty7, regarding synthetic stock double rifles is indeed a very interesting one. I'm really surprised one hasn't been offered. In terms of avoiding some of the hazards with airline damage to guns, it does make sense. The gun writers have sold us a bill of goods in stating that the synthetic stocked rifles are more accurate, blah, blah, blah, but we all know the real reason for the proliference of synthetic stocks is due to the depletion of good wood. It costs far less to produce a gun with a synthetic stock than it does to fit a gun with a nice piece of walnut. With that said, you may be onto something that we will soon see in the sacrosanct world of double rifles.

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Where have you been? a 470NE double rifle, made of stainless steel,with a synthetic stock was offered by B. Searcy several years ago. It wasn't accepted too well, and was discontinued after a very short time. The last one of those was offered for sale at the Dallas Safari Club show a few years ago,by it's owner an African PH, it didn't sell at the show. It sold later as a collector piece, for some exorbitant amount!

I hunt a lot in Alaska's rainy Septembers, and I thought about buying one of Searcy's stainless/synthetic double rifles chambered for 375 flanged with QD scope mounts for hunting there, but I drug my feet too long!

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..........Mac >>>===(x)===>
DUGABOY1, and MacD37 founding member of DRSS www.doublerifleshooterssociety.com
"If I die today, I have had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"

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Who will cease making Double Rifles in within the next 5 years?

My guess goes to Heym. They have been on a tight rope for a long time.

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