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Bolt actions have a very powerful camming action for primary extraction, and can thus handle high pressures and sticky cases with ease. Not so double rifles. I well remember firing two different double rifles which had been re-barrelled to fire more obtainable calibres, but calibres which generated pressures considerably greater than the original rounds did. Both seemed to work fine - at first - but both seized up on me after a few rounds. Upon opening the action the empty cases, instead of being ejected, merely sat there looking at me. They were stuck in the chambers, and the extraction and ejection mechanism was not powerful enough to shift them. Sometimes closing and opening the action again will put things right, but on one occasion I had to poke the empties out with a cleaning rod.

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don’t know what kind of double rifle this guy had, but the first small amount of opening, the ejectors are extractors, and if they are not strong enough to lift the cases out of the chambers, the rifle will not open at all! With even the smallest amount of taper to the case, the extraction afforded by the first amount would release the case from the chamber walls, and if ejectors are fitted, the cases would be ejected. IMO, opinion, the above paragraph is more speculation than experience!

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It is an undeniable fact that (most) bolt actions hold more rounds than do double rifles. The advantage gained may or may not be significant, though. If a quick follow-up shot is required, nothing beats a double. If more than two shots are required, the bolt action is preferable, but the double is quicker to reload should this be necessary. I would call this a draw, as so much depends on the actual situation. I was once putting a group of hunters and guides through a shooting course which called for three rounds to be loaded, followed by a mandatory reload of two rounds. However, one of the hunters had a double rifle, so to make it fairer and more competitive for him we had everyone load with two rounds at a time. Never again! The speed at which that double could be fired and reloaded made absolute mincemeat out of the bolt action users, and was an education to behold. That double rifle user needed no concessions at all, believe me!

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The above paragraph only shows that many think one thing, and find another when it is put to practice!
I think, basically, the article is a good one, and well written, but with a definite bias toward the bolt rifle he is most familiar with. He is right in one respect, if a person shifts to a double after using a bolt all their lives, they need to do some shooting before they will get good with the double, and vice-versa! Without knowing it he has shown his ignorance as to how a double is properly regulated. This isn’t his fault, as many folks who have been hunting, loading for, and experimenting with doubles for many years believe as he does. Both are mistaken, however! I double regardless of chambering, if properly regulated, is as accurate as the same round would be in a single shot, or bolt rifle, with the same sighting equipment. This is because if the load is right, the barrels, though physically, converging, do not cross at any distance, but shoot side by side!

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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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