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Double Rifles, Single Shots & Combinations >> Double Rifles
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hobbyguymaine
.224 member


Reged: 03/02/07
Posts: 31
Loc: Maine USA
Introduction & Questions from new forum member
      #70847 - 06/02/07 01:05 AM

For the last couple weeks I've been lurking around the Double Rifles forum and have to admit I'm a bit intimidated by the diversity (and price!) of many of the doubles discussed here. During the last couple years I've refined my gun collection, sold and traded off many, upgraded the better pieces with calibers and actions more to my personal tastes. I prefer newer production with exposed hammers (and minimal or no litigation driven "improved" safeties and action redesigns) - 1/2 cock works just fine thank you! I've recently bought and traded off modern production and custom Browning and Winchester lever actions and single shots and finally have refined my shooters to freshly rebored (plus a couple rebarrels) single shots in traditional older U.S. calibers: 50-110 Win, 45-90 Win, 30-40 Krag, and 25-35 Win. I've traded off or sold all of my new production Winchester lever actions (couldn't learn to love their rebounding hammers and firing pins and tang safties) and replaced them with '80's production Browning Win. copies - traditional 1/2 cock hammer safety but in modern steel and heat treat. I still have to finish my Browning 71 lever rebarrel from 348 to 45-90 having sold my Browning 71 50 Express, either extensively rework or sell my remaining Browning 1886 45-70, and am counting the days till my Browning 1895 30-40 comes back rebored to 405 (along with my rebored 25-35 single shot).

I do love loading and shooting the older rimmed cases - guess 50 years ago as a youngster spent too many hours reading of Teddy Roosevelt's adventures, and a little later Hemingway and Ruark, and Corbett's Tiger hunting - but finally deciding that I'd likely never hunt Africa, or the East or South America and by my late teens planned instead to homestead in Alaska or coastal B.C., possibly guiding in big bear country. The bigbore Winchester levers made sense for me, but the custom guns were out of reach financially and I trained as a tool & diemaker and found a master gunsmith mentor, and finally 35 years ago ended up in Maine, married and mortgaged to an old 90 acre farm, alternately working at various jobs (included managing a toy/hobby store for 10 yrs - "hobbyguymaine"!) and running my own machine shop. My younger daughter will graduate from college this year, we've just moved into our new and smaller "retirement" home on the 26 acres we kept - feeling the squeeze of urban sprawl.

A couple years ago my my Mom passed away suddenly leaving a small inheritence, and since she'd always been very vocal regarding my "unrealistic daydreams", I felt there was some poetic justice in investing in some better quality firearms! After years of perceiving my new gun price slot in the $200- to $500- max range, along with at times selling rifles to pay off a bill - buying a NIB rifle for a $1,000 + and immediately shipping it out for a $500- rebore and new sights etc. has eaten up most of that cash! I've also upgraded my reloading tools and bought enough components to reload for years and I'm now really pretty satisfied with what I've got ... except ... does anyone else ever fantasize while carrying a double or bigbore in heavy cover? Unlikely I'll ever get to Alaska much less Africa, but that DR lust and fascination (along with the tool & diemaker's love of fine metalwork!) has been here for nearly 50 years! I've carried short barrelled Rossi hammer side by side shotguns during bird season and while night investigating 4-legged prowlers around our livestock, and a hammerless tang safety double would be foreign to me, though even 40 years ago I'd always page through Gun Digest, ignoring bolt actions but studying the DR listings. Since the first ones showed up in North America I've been aware of the Pedersoli Kodiak 45-70s and their controversial reveiws, and with my own first centerfire 40+ years ago being a 45-70 single shot, and still my cartridge of choice for most of my hunting, the only stumbling block was the price and that stumbling block get's a little higher every year!

By way of introduction, Joe (hobbyguymaine)

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CptCurlAdministrator
.450 member


Reged: 01/05/04
Posts: 5290
Loc: Fincastle, Botetourt County, V...
Re: Introduction & Questions from new forum member [Re: hobbyguymaine]
      #70848 - 06/02/07 01:12 AM

Joe,

Welcome to the forum.

I had a Pedersoli Kodiak Mk. IV in .45/70 and liked it a lot. A friend liked it better and persuaded me to sell it to him last year. Contrary to the opinions of some other shooters, I found mine limited to the factory Remington 405 grain loads, or equivalent. That's not necessarily a negative, mind you. I just don't want you to think you can make it into a poor-man's dangerous game rifle.

Keep us posted.

Curl

--------------------
RoscoeStephenson.com

YOUR DOUBLE RIFLE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND.



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Double_Trouble
.375 member


Reged: 27/04/06
Posts: 577
Loc: Canada
Re: Introduction & Questions from new forum member [Re: hobbyguymaine]
      #70851 - 06/02/07 01:30 AM

HobbyGuy

welcome to the forum and that is one detialed intro!

i wouldnt be all that intimidated by the guns discussed here or the prices for that matter.... many of us here dont own DR's but it's a great forum to discuss them and whatever tickles your fancy as it relates to guns, hunting, the outdoors and most anything else.

dont tell me that you sold off a pre-64 Winchester model 94 in a 30-30 when you downsized.... OK tell me, I can handle the pain lol

DT

--------------------
Double Trouble,
Speak not of what you do not know.
Listen up when it's time to.

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stoerte
.224 member


Reged: 04/02/07
Posts: 7
Loc: Germany
Re: Introduction & Questions from new forum member [Re: Double_Trouble]
      #70855 - 06/02/07 02:45 AM

Joe,

welcome to the forum.

That's what I call an intro, although I seem to have missed your questions.

As you can see I am new here aswell, but I would'nt feel intimidated due to price tags. It's all about the joy you get from your guns, and you certainly do!
Even more so as people around here seem very friendly indeed.

The price of a gun is not important, it's what it is worth to you (This is the very reason why we have preferences). And your collection seems to be very precious to you.

Consider yourself lucky!

Enjoy


Stoerte

--------------------
It is possible to kill an ele with a 6.5 Mannlicher, but I don't want to discover that I don't belong to those who can!

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hobbyguymaine
.224 member


Reged: 03/02/07
Posts: 31
Loc: Maine USA
Re: Introduction & Questions from new forum member [Re: stoerte]
      #70857 - 06/02/07 03:41 AM

To Double Trouble

Downsizing during last year or so:

NIB 1895 Win 405 blued - sold
NIB 1886 Win oct brl takedown 45-70 - traded
NIB 1886 Win EL 45-70 - sold - (tried 3 times, but just couldn't learn to love all those Win. lawyer driven safety features!)
nice 1886 Browning 45-70 SRC - sold
NIB 1895 Browning 30-40 -sold (had 2, other one should be back next week, rebored to 405, have Lyman 38 sight copy and other goodies for my TR rifle!)
ANIB 71 Browning 50 Express Turnbull Big Bore Classic - sold - another lifetime lust, but more than I needed here in Maine!
nice 336 Marlin 30-30, early unmolested wavy top engraved - sold
nice 71 Browning 348 carbine (poor wood tho') - traded
NIB Rossi 92 Win copy 480 Ruger stainless steel - sold
NIB 1886 Browning 45-70 oct brl rifle - sold, I think
used but nice Ruger 3-screw Blackhawk w/Super brass frame 45 Colt - sold
used but nice Ruger single-six 32 H&R - traded
used but nice Taurus 450SS 2C 45 Colt snubby - sold
(3 handguns were part of quest for CCWs - ended up w/a slicked up Ruger 357 SP101 for warm weather, special ordered Freedom Arms 97 3-1/2" brrld rd butt 45 Colt 5 shot for cold weather!)
nice Rossi 12ga 3" 20" brrld hammer double - traded
nice old Burnside Carbine (old family piece, but no sentimental) - sold
nice old #4 Rem rolling block 32 rimfire - sold

during last 25+ years:

Springfield 45-70 trapdoor w/new Armory brl, reblued, vernier tang site, custom stocked for long range prone shooting - sold for next
Sharps Borchardt Sporting 45x2.4" carbine, set back rechambered to 45-70, action had been extensively reworked for high pressure varmint cartridge, factory wood refinished, beat myself silly w/old Elmer Keith mx 45-70 loads in it - sold to build next
Win 1895 (Russian surplus 7.62x54 action w/junker brl), I rebarreled to 30-40 Krag, new Lyman rec. sight, restocked w/Fajen semi-fancy wood, had it reblued, wish I kept it - sold to pay bills
Marlin 444 , the old original high comb straight stock - traded in on new Marlin 1895 45-70 in '72
Marlin original square bolt 1895 33 WCF carbine w/NEW orig. 45-70 1/2 oct Special Smokeless Steel barrel - wish I'd kept it - sold to pay bills
Marlin original 1894 25-20 pistolgrip brld action reblued, w/new SSS oct 25-20 brl, another should've - sold to pay bills
Springfield 30-40s & 30-06s (1/2 dzn +), unmodified to restocked nicely sporterized, wish I'd at least kept the classic restocked 98 Krag - sold to pay bills

Yes, there were more rifles and handguns too, the Walther P-38 9mm I swapped for a posthole digger for my tractor, and not one but at least a couple pre '64 (actually prewar!) 94 Win 30-30s swapped one off and paid my brother-in-law's buddy with the other for scraping the paint off our 200 yr old house!

The older sales/trades were when we were young and land-poor trying to raise a family - the last 5 years you'd think a 45-70 hammer gun loving sometimes DR lusting would've bought or traded for a Pedersoli Kodiak 45-70 w/spare 20ga. brls! Kind of doubt I can scrape together the 3-4 thousand at this stage of the game ... unless I sell/trade some of the new pieces ... don't think so.

Realistically I have too many projects waiting to be completed, but I still have a good bit of my machine shop left (moved it up to the new house, but after a year nothing set up or under power - yet). I've really liked my Rossi coachguns, and the 12ga 3" w/heavy 3" buck loads and slugs hadn't loosened up anything outside of probably brain cells for considering this, but I'm just pushing 60, still remember how to profile and thread up and fit a barrel blank, or 2, have done a lot of hand fitting of replacement parts, much delicate soldering and both hard & soft silver soldering over the years, and know my way around the handloading bench! What's around for a modern production hammer double? I'm guessing I'll be told those Rossis are too soft and that firing pins could be a problem, but if not what then? 2 new Green Mountain 1.275"D. 35" 4140 banks are $400- for the pair, whether 1-18" twist .457/8 groove, or or 1-24" .510" groove!

Ongoing introduction, Thanks, Joe (hobbyguymaine)

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Double_Trouble
.375 member


Reged: 27/04/06
Posts: 577
Loc: Canada
Re: Introduction & Questions from new forum member [Re: hobbyguymaine]
      #70860 - 06/02/07 04:10 AM

YIKES!
I said I could handle the pain but you neednt rub salt in the wound! Pre war 30-30's and one for scraping paint!

I know that compared to the other guns discussed here that a Win 94 30-30 falls way short but as the fellow who posted above said ...its not the market value that counts its the value these guns have to the owner.

Get that tool room set up and get at it!
I have access to a full blown tool shop but i am still looking for a Bridgeport in decent shape to go along with the 1 meter lathe and surface grinder for my garage.

DT

--------------------
Double Trouble,
Speak not of what you do not know.
Listen up when it's time to.

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mickey
.416 member


Reged: 05/01/03
Posts: 4647
Loc: Pend Oreille Valley, Idaho
Re: Introduction & Questions from new forum member [Re: Double_Trouble]
      #70863 - 06/02/07 05:10 AM

Hobby Guy

Sounds like the perfect time to build yourself a DR. There is another member here from Maine that posts about building Doubles and he seems quite proficient.

I can't recall his handle off hand but I'm sure either he will pop up or someone will with his name.

Welcome to NE.com

--------------------
Lovu Zdar
Mick

A Man of Pleasure, Enterprise, Wit and Spirit Rare Books, Big Game Hunting, English Rifles, Fishing, Explosives, Chauvinism, Insensitivity, Public Drunkenness and Sloth, Champion of Lost and Unpopular Causes.

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Bramble
.375 member


Reged: 29/07/06
Posts: 950
Loc: England
Re: Introduction & Questions from new forum member [Re: mickey]
      #70888 - 06/02/07 12:22 PM

If you like hammerguns there are hundreds of really quite fine hammer 12 guages here that go for next to nothing. One of them for sure would make a project gun for 45-70 as it is such low pressure. If you want some help I can put you in touch with a UK dealer that could find you one and ship it. With your engineering ecperience the build should cause you little grief.

Regards

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