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Being this side of the pond, the principle driver behind over and unders for game shooting has in many ways been driven by cost of guns.

Side by sides are pretty much a hand built affair requiring lots of costly labour. The likes of AyA took over from British built guns in the 1960’s. I bought my AyA Yeoman new as a 15 year old using money from summer jobs on the neighbours farm and Birthday / Christmas money in the mid 1980s. Nowadays a base boxlock side by side is a few thousand.

However the Italians and now the Turkish have invested heavily in machine made guns and a new base level gun is an over abd under from the likes of Berretta, ATA, FAIR etc.

And for older shooters, when the side by side needs repair - cost is often prohibitive and less than price of a pretty decent mid range over and under. Friend’s Jeffery side by side broke its stock. £3,000 (probably now £5,000) to restock. That’s a good Berretta or Browning.

Coming back to over and under double rifles, I have an over and under combination with a Einstecklauf to make it a double 7x65r.

Recoil from bottom barrel is straight back. Top barrel does kick up. I suspect with less flip you are back on target that little bit quicker.

I understand that most over and under doubles are regulated so that top barrel shoots a bit higher than bottom, rather to one side as in a side by side. There was an old boy on the Stalking Directory who used an over and double Merkel in 7x65r for open hill red deer. He used bottom barrel for 100m and top for longer 200m shots.

Certainly my rifle is more than accurate enough that I have taken deer to well over 200m.

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