Hi Saul,
The following blather is regarding Side by Side rifles, knowing full well that Over / Under rifles are also called "double rifles".
Nonetheless, I favor the SxS type and am referring to same here.
This is a topic I have been interested in for many long years now.
A SxS, chambered in the .303 British cartridge is definitely what I want.
Double rifles and shotguns are usually very attractive in my opinion (usually), and owning a smallish caliber double has been a quest of mine from the beginning.
So far, I have resisted the urge to settle for the all too common 8x57R double.
For a time, I did however own a petit little hammer gun by Henry Atkin, in ".275 NE Flanged" (7x57R) but I sold it to pay off a safari bill.
I only had $5,000.us in it, as it was originally made in some other caliber that, had eventually been re-lined to .275 and re-proofed in England.
If it had been done in .303 instead, I never would have sold it (would've surely cost a lot more and been worth a lot more as well, oye vey).
If an affordable but serviceable maker (Heym, Chapuis, Verney Carron, Merkel, etc.) would wake up and smell the market then accordingly, make a .303 British caliber, small-medium frame double rifle, with 26" barrels, splinter forend, semi-pistol grip and oval cheek piece, to retail between about $10,000.us to $15,000.us (according to various options, such as ejectors vs extractors, grade of wood and so forth), old Velo Dog predicts they would not be able to make them fast enough to keep up with demand, for the first 2 or 3 years anyway.
Chapuis offers a cute little double, sort of like what I just described but in .30-30 Winchester caliber, with spare small gauge shotgun barrels, at a very attractive price.
Sadly however, the .30-30 barrels are only 21 inches short ( I cannot imagine why, except to save themselves a little money on steel perhaps or, maybe regulating short barrels is easier to accomplish that it is with longer barrels ?).
I could make do with a .30-30 double, if I some dark day I was to finally admit that, no .303 double is ever going to appear on my horizon but, I'm not interested in super short barrels, whatsoever.
Admittedly, there might be someone out there who possibly favors super extra short rifle barrels like that but, it will never be me, ever.
Even the evidently quite popular 23.6 inchers from Merkel, are just a little short for a double rifle, IMO.
That's my rant for the morning I guess.
Cheers,
Velo Dog.
