Chapius Iphisi 375h&h

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I'm not sure everyone fully understands what a project you can be taking on when using a double rifle.... I'm still not convinced it is my favorite thing. They are fun to own and shoot. But bolt guns are easy once you have one that feeds reliably. Dealing with one barrel is certainly much simpler. Exponentially so.

Phil is correct in that slight changes in speed, etc have major effects. Heck I mentioned that I'm not sure it's ok to shoot a double of the bench. Regulation will likely change by the way recoil is handled.

I remember shooting my first 505 Gibbs off sticks at 50 yards and having 600 grain bullets going at 1950 fps hitting 8" higher than 525 grain at 2300 fps. The hypothesis was that after ignition but prior to the bullet leaving the muzzle, the recoil rize of said muzzle was greater simply because the bullet was traveling slower down the barrel during recoil.

For me the mind games come into play when you start thinking about the cross section of regulation and accuracy. The two are most certainly related, but are not the same thing. It's easy to get into a spiral of thinking and head off into the weeds.

When it comes to doubles, we always look to see what the rifle was regulated too in regards to muzzle velocity. From there we presume this is the velocity we should be loading to when we attempt to develop another load.

So let's presume we head in that direction. Our brand new to us rifle was regulated to 2200fps m.v. using Horndady DGX bullets. Maybe we even know the powder is H4831 (choosing this just cause that seems to be the most popular in .470NE).

So armed with starting load data, we load up a bunch of our favorite bullet in from some low point to some high point in regards to powder charge. And off to the range we go.

One potential outcome that I believe I've seen myself is as follows. Working from low to high in our rounds, we initially see quite a large spread in the printing of the two rounds. As we increase the load, they start to come in also as expected. Now we're doing this making use of a chrono and taking good notes on the results.

At some point our charge is resulting in a muzzle velocity that matches up with what the rifle is regulated to, but the bullets are printing with a bit more spread than we want. As we continue up in charge that spread gets better, but we're also now at an appreciably higher velocity than what it was regulated too. This also may be at a point that we're satisfied but also could be that we know we could get a little bit closer with more charge.

One other potential outcome is that at some velocity we have achieve the best two bullet spread we can and then things get worse from there.

This is what I'm trying to get at in regards to the cross section of regulation an accuracy.

I think it is quite possible that one will have equal or better accuracy at different charge weights and therefore muzzle velocities with different bullets from that which the rifle was regulated to.

It may also be that you never attain the two bullet print that you're looking for with a particular bullet.

At this point it's easy to get caught up in the regulation game and start to think you need to have the rifle regulated again for your favorite bullet. Perhaps so, but then maybe you just need to develop the load custom to your rifle the same as one would do with their bolt actions. And then again, maybe it's time to give up on that bullet as ever being the best choice in regards to accuracy for your rifle.

Once again my thoughts running wild and not an expert opinion in the least. I'm still learning about these finicky guns. Please feel free to poke holes in my thought process if you wish, it's how we learn.

@AZDAVE, I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

 

[Puddle]

I'm not sure everyone fully understands what a project you can be taking on when using a double rifle.... I'm still not convinced it is my favorite thing. They are fun to own and shoot. But bolt guns are easy once you have one that feeds reliably. Dealing with one barrel is certainly much simpler. Exponentially so.

Phil is correct in that slight changes in speed, etc have major effects. Heck I mentioned that I'm not sure it's ok to shoot a double of the bench. Regulation will likely change by the way recoil is handled.

I remember shooting my first 505 Gibbs off sticks at 50 yards and having 600 grain bullets going at 1950 fps hitting 8" higher than 525 grain at 2300 fps. The hypothesis was that after ignition but prior to the bullet leaving the muzzle, the recoil rize of said muzzle was greater simply because the bullet was traveling slower down the barrel during recoil.

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm not the right match for a double rifle. Problem is, I'm an inveterate propellant and bullet tester, testing all manner of propellant burn rates and bullet construction combinations. It's a rare event that I take the same handload to a "Test Media Session" (i.e. cow Elk hunting) two seasons in a row.

I blame 'ol Don, who got me started down the path of seriously considering a double. He took one look at my .375 H&H, and said "sure, try out this double" which was a lovely Manton in .450/400 3" NE. 2 rounds later I was hooked. Fortunately, a Ruger #1 in that cartridge satisfies that itch.

If I could only stop fiddling around with those loads...

 

[Tom Leoni]

All, I have some Iphisi news, and I thought I'd share.

1 - I still have 11 Iphisis in .375 that will be sold at the "old" price of $9,999. Starting next year, unfortunately I won't be able to hold that price, which dates back to 2022. New MSRP will be $11,999. I wish I could price it lower, but I would operate at a loss.

2 - Around March-April 2025, the .450-400 version will also be available. MSRP for that one will be $13,799. All features and looks will be absolutely the same as the .375 version.

3 - Andy Larsson from Skinner Sights has made me a host of cool sighting accessories for the Iphisi (which will also fit the higher-priced Elan). These include:

• A fully-adjustable peep sight that goes in the rear scope-mounting block ($79).
• A dovetail blank that, if desired, can be used to replace the current 3-leaf sight when the peep sight is in use. These have the caliber designation engraved in gold-colored lettering and look great ($69).
• A base ($49) and Acro red-dot mount ($69). If anyone here desires a different kind of red-dot mount, please let me know and I'll pass the info along to Andy--I expect price would be roughly the same.
• Forthcoming may also be a Picatinny rail--price will be around $59. I don't have this one yet, and it may not make it in time for the 2025 catalog.

Anyway, these are the news I have. Happy Fall everyone and please don't hesitate to write to me if you have any questions.

 

[spike.t]

All, I have some Iphisi news, and I thought I'd share.

1 - I still have 11 Iphisis in .375 that will be sold at the "old" price of $9,999. Starting next year, unfortunately I won't be able to hold that price, which dates back to 2022. New MSRP will be $11,999. I wish I could price it lower, but I would operate at a loss.

2 - Around March-April 2025, the .450-400 version will also be available. MSRP for that one will be $13,799. All features and looks will be absolutely the same as the .375 version.

3 - Andy Larsson from Skinner Sights has made me a host of cool sighting accessories for the Iphisi (which will also fit the higher-priced Elan). These include:

• A fully-adjustable peep sight that goes in the rear scope-mounting block ($79).
• A dovetail blank that, if desired, can be used to replace the current 3-leaf sight when the peep sight is in use. These have the caliber designation engraved in gold-colored lettering and look great ($69).
• A base ($49) and Acro red-dot mount ($69). If anyone here desires a different kind of red-dot mount, please let me know and I'll pass the info along to Andy--I expect price would be roughly the same.
• Forthcoming may also be a Picatinny rail--price will be around $59. I don't have this one yet, and it may not make it in time for the 2025 catalog.

Anyway, these are the news I have. Happy Fall everyone and please don't hesitate to write to me if you have any questions.

Hi Tom so what caused the change of mind in now making it in 450-400?...

 

[Tom Leoni]

Hi--I don't know that there was a change of mind... I just saw how well the .375 version was doing and I thought I'd expand the line. Plus, many users here sent me private messages asking for it!

 

[spike.t]

Hi--I don't know that there was a change of mind... I just saw how well the .375 version was doing and I thought I'd expand the line. Plus, many users here sent me private messages asking for it!

OK just when I spoke to you at sci about it you said it wasn't happening..... but good it is..look forward to seeing one

 

[Fixfire]

Where can I go to see the configurations of the remaining 11 Iphisis models?

 

[Tom Leoni]

Hi, @Fixfire - the only difference between each specimen of the Iphisi would be the figure of the individual piece of wood. All of them are AAA Circassian walnut, and I've never seen one sub-par.

So the picture of the Iphisi on our Chapuis Web site is (I would say) 95% representative of what you would get if you ordered one. I wish we had the resources to take high-res pictures of every Chapuis we get in, but Benelli USA (the importer and my actual employer) has four other brands--Benelli, Franchi, Stoeger and Uberti--and our warehouse staff is fairly overextended.

In a pinch, I could take a day to go to the warehouse and take some pictures with my cell phone and post them here (coupled with their serial number), if enough people here are earnestly interested in seeing them. At the moment, I have 5 in the warehouse, 3 on their way, and the balance due as part of the next shipment due to leave France the first week of November.

I hope this helps!

 

[Fixfire]

Yes, that helps. More specifically: What is the LOP and are they all the same/standard?

 

[Tom Leoni]

Hi, @Fixfire - LOP is 15.3" and yes, they are identical dimensionally and as far as specifications.