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BakerB, If you are only 28 yrs old, and your son is only one yr old, and you want to keep the rifle for a keepsake for your son, after you pass on, then there is one thing nobody here has made clear. The vintage rifle you buy today didn’t sell for the large profit when it was only 10 yrs old, it was simply a ten yr old used rifle, and carried the attendant reduction in price compared to a new one. What I mean by this is, by the time you die, and your son take possession of the “KEEPSAKE” it will have it’s own history, and one that has family history at that. By that time the new ones may not even look like a classic double rifle! Look at the trend of them now like the Blaser S2. It may be a double rifle but nobody would call it a classic design.

The new rifle today is what it is! They are very well made double rifles, made of far better steel, and if insured and lost or damaged on it’s way to, or from Africa, it can be replaced with one exactly like the one you lost. Another thing you need to keep in mind is if you don’t know much about double rifles, or know someone who does know a LOT about double rifles you can get burned pretty badly by some of the pimped up junk that is on the vintage market today. The guard against this is a reputable dealer, like Champlin’s in Enid Ok. If you are set on a vintage double, my suggestion to you is to pay Champlin’s a visit. There you can walk into a vault that will hold a hundred or so double rifles on any given day. George Caswell, and J.J. Paradeau are a couple of the most knowledgeable people in the USA where double rifles are concerned, and will not steer you wrong.
Not everybody who buys a double rifle turns out to be a double rifle person, and because they find out after the purchase that they simply were on the wrong track. You would not believe the number of good double rifles I’ve bought for discount prices simply because the guy who bought the rifle thought a double rifle was something that it wasn’t, and because they can’t make it shoot properly, think they have bought a lemon, and want to rid themselves of it.
I think also, that most new to double rifles either buy a cheap peace of crap because of the a low price, or buy too large of chambering and then cant live with the result. It is my opinion that if one has no background with double rifles, or the afore mentioned support people to help him, he should buy NEW, or a used newly made double and start with smaller chambering. If he absolutely must have an over .400 cal, then my choice would be a plain old 450NE 3 1/4” because .458 dia bullets are a dime a dozen, and brass is easy to find. The 450NE 3 1/4” is the cartridge that all other big bore are judged by, and will handle just about anything you want to hunt, yet still be economical to shoot a lot. But I think however for a first double rifle, something like a nice new, or new used 9.3X74R double rifle. I find of the people I know who own and hunt with double rifles hunt everything with double rifles, and every one of them owns a 9.3X74R double rifle

The fact is with a budget of up to $20K of the new rifles my pick would be the Heym 88B for around $16K and spend the other $4K on on another Buffalo trophy fee! If you find you are not a double rifle man, then the Heym is an easy rifle to sell without loss!

None of what I have posted here is iron clad, but simply my opinion, and not something that is not open to opposite opinion!

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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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