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Hello everyone!

I've lurked on this forum for a while enjoying stories of hunts, custom guns, old guns, rare cartridges, etc. I feel it is now my turn to try to contribute to this incredible community so full of knowledge. This thread won't likely be one filled with beautiful photographs or eloquent prose; except perhaps when others chime in. I'm not much for taking pictures, and my writing could use some work, but I'll do my best.

My intent is to use this thread to document, and hopefully work through failures and successes with a few newly acquired guns:
Husqvarna Model 17A 20ga X 16ga
Husqvarna Model 17B 12.7x44R X 16ga
Lanber Unifrance 12ga O/U Rifled

I haven't received the Lanber yet (just ordered it from CDNN), but I have the Husqvarna's in my possession, and I'm in the process of gathering everything I need to shoot them.

The 17A is on the right, and the 17B left.

17B action.

17A action

Both of the Husky's have nice rifle bores. The 17A is exceptional, with only light blemishes in the bore. Groove diameter is .635"

The 17B is nice as well. The rifling is deep and shiny, with scattered pitting. .5105" groove and .476" land diameter. The second picture shows a .477" bullet for my .480 Ruger inserted as far as it will go into the muzzle.

Slugged the 17B's barrel.

Here's a chamber casting from the 17A. I would have one from the 17B as well, however the pitting caused the casting to lock itself into the bore. I'm inclined to believe the chamber is the standard 50mm 20ga, but it does seem to taper down a good bit after ~45mm. Any opinions?

The rear sight on the 17B is the standard 1 fixed - 2 folding, but the 17A has a different rear sight. I haven't played around with it yet, but it appears the screw in the second picture moves the blade up and down for elevation adjustments. The head of the screw rides in a groove on the backside of the sight, pulling it up, or pushing it down. I'm sure it's nothing too novel for most on the site.

The wrist on the 17A has some old repaired cracks that will need to be dealt with before I take it to the range for the first time. I'll take pictures as that process takes place.

I've gathered up a good bit of my reloading kit for these two guns so far. I have 20ga CBC brass cases for the 17A that need to be cut to length and have a couple thousands turned off of the rims. I cut down (40) .50 Alaskan cases for conversion to 12.7x44R using a little chop saw from Harbor Freight. I originally purchased it for making .300 Blackout brass, but has proven quite handy for a number of other reloading projects since. I haven't messed around with any .50 cal rounds yet, so I'll need to make myself a 50 cal plug for my Lyman case trimmer before I can trim the brass to final length.

I'll likely start out using IMR4759 for the 12.7x44R, and I have a local lead on some IMR 7625 for the 16ga shotgun loads (using CBC brass for those as well). In time I plan on trying out blackpowder, as I'm guessing that will be necessary for the rifled 20ga 17A. If anyone knows of a safe, low pressure smokeless load for the rifled 20ga I would be happy to hear it. I have selected a Lee 450 grain bullet to start with in the 12.7x44R, and I will be trying a patched .60 cal round ball, and a bore diameter round ball in the 20ga.

It might be a month or so until I make it to the range to test any loads out (let alone fire these guns). I'm going to school full time, and have a part time internship, a wife, and too many other hobbies, so not much time for guns!

Take care everyone! Thank you for all of your contributions to the site. Oh, and about the thread title, I've got the double rifle fever, but haven't had it in me to sink that much money into one gun yet (it would mean selling quite a bit of my collection). One day! Until then, these combination guns should do the trick.

-Brandon

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