In reply to:

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The number of available rifles here in the UK is not as great as in the US or Australia

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Once this might have been true, but sadly there was an exodus of double rifles out of Australia in in the mid-late nineties.

Australia really had no historical involvement with doubles, except for the odd rifle in what we call a "Kangaroo" chambering: mostly thing's like .442 Carbine.

In the late 70's a small group of entepeneurs started bringing doubles in from India, but that supply dried up in the mid-nineties, about the same time they started to be re-exported because of the onerous gun laws that came into force after the Port Arthur massacre, particularly when the Australian dollar was at it's lowest ebb 3-4 years ago. Those that sold them had only transient interest in them.

Some here have regarded this as tantamount to selling off our heritage, but if it was, it was a very short lived heritage!

Most of these rifles went to the US, particularly the boxlocks, with (curiously) many of the sidelocks going to Germany.

There is still the odd "sleeper" around, and most of the "known" doubles are now firmly in collections and do not come onto the market all that often. Paradoxically, Australia is probably now a net importer of doubles!

In spite of the disadvantageous currency exchange rate, many of these recent imports have come from the UK.

To sum up, the well here has well and truly run dry!

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