I just returned from the SCI convention and had a nice time. There was quite a few double rifles to look at but the prices were through the roof. I again looked at " The New Rigby " and can say that they are a far cry from the Rigby rifles of another period of time. Paul Roberts, (the former owner of Rigby was there) and is marketing new double and bolt action rifles under the old name of Jeffery. We talked for quite a while and Paul is trying to obtain customers in the " mid-price range. The only problem is that the range is rather steep @ 24K for a boxlock double! After all is said and done if I were looking for a decent double for a low price, I would certainly give Merkel a look. I looked at one of their rifles in 500 nitro with upgraded wood and some African big game animals engraved on the action for about 11,000 US. All in all I would say that that was a very fair price.
Kreighoff had a very nice display and of course their guns are a decent " meat stick ". I do think that once you get above their entry level rifle, the upgrades are far to expensive!
Chapius had a nice display and their rifles are a solid built piece to say the least. Blaser/Sigarms had their doubles on display and I am curious to see the reports on these rifles once they have been " rung out ".
...also attended sci reno...amazed by the number of high ticket doubles that were sold during the convention, considering the state of the domestic and global economies...
...random thoughts...swaro has a new rail-mounted system coming out that (together with the 4-coil system, recoil bumper, no 24 dg reticle, etc.) in my mind, places the company at the head of the pack in terms of dg scopes...looked at the light-weight single shots by merkel, blaser, chapuis and krieghoff, and now consider the jaeger system to be too complicated in terms of cleaning, maintenance, access, etc...heard that the brit firms are aggressively targeting state-side customers, now that the oppressive homeland laws have fairly well decimated the domestic market...all-in-all sci continues to be the pinnacle of safari gatherings, imho...
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