If you watch African hunting videos, Tracks Across Africa, Dangerous Game, etc., it seems that you are seeing more and more PHs carrying double rifles. I am curious, if you are a PH, or have hunted with a PH that carried that double, what brand double do you/did they carry and what caliber was the double?

Ridge Taylor - 500 Nitro Express in a William Evans double.

Mark Harper 470 Merkel

John Wambach 470 Chapuis

Hilton Nichols 470 something
Neil Duckworth 470 something
Rory Gallatley 500/465 H&H (IT HAD BEEN RECONDITIONED IN BRITAIN THE YEAR BEFOORE AND I COULD HAVE BOUGHT IT FOR $12,000. YES I AM CRYING)
Garry Kelly 470 Webley&Scott

Mark - Zane carried a 500 Nitro Express of some make? I am in Vancouver waiting to fly out.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Hilton Nichols 470 something
Neil Duckworth 470 something
Rory Gallatley 500/465 H&H (IT HAD BEEN RECONDITIONED IN BRITAIN THE YEAR BEFOORE AND I COULD HAVE BOUGHT IT FOR $12,000. YES I AM CRYING)
Garry Kelly 470 Webley&Scott

You ought to be crying about that H&H if it was in the last 20 years!

quote:

Originally posted by samwise:
Mark - Zane carried a 500 Nitro Express of some make? I am in Vancouver waiting to fly out.

Zayne van der Merwe: 500 Nitro, Krieghoff

Jonny Hulme 500 Nitro Krieghoff

Afrcanhunter,

It was in 2000. I wonder what Icould have sold it for.

Mark

Gavin Rorke
500NE Rigby double

BigB

Leon Kachellhoffer: .577

By the way, here's Leon when we were quail hunting this afternoon:

Count so far:

English/4
Merkel/1
Chapuis/1
Krieghoff/2

.500/5
.470/5
.500/.465/1
.577/1

Looks like the make may vary but the .500 and .470 are the runaway calibers (not that surprising really).

Con Van Wyk, Krieghoff 500 NE

Barry Stiles
Searcy .470 NE.

Lance Nesbitt
Belgium built .470 NE (make?)

Richard Tabor - 470 Kreighoff

Roger Whittall - H&H No2 sidelock in 500/465

Buzz Charlton has bought a 450NE 3 1/4", but I understand that he is awaiting ammo for it.

Hilton Nichols' 470 is a boxlock Mahillion (sp?), a good Belgian maker.

JPK

Andy Schultz; 470NE Kreighoff.
Matt Stanton; 470NE Merkel.
John Sharp ; 470NE Rigby.
Jumbo Moore; 470NE Merkel.
Chap Osterhausen; 500NE Searcy

Me 500/416 krieghoff
Steve Barry .500/416 Krieghoff
Mike Payne .470 Krieghoff and now a 500/416 for back up on ele (finds .470 a bit short of penetration)
Buzz Charlton has a couple of .450's (english makes)
Dave Christiensen .470 (H&H)

most of us who have been in the game a while tend to aquire one. Weather we always use it or even stay with it is a different matter.

Brent Hein:
.470 Merkel

Andrew Dawson .470 N.E William Evans.

John Dugmore told me when I meet him in Maun Nov 2006 that he had sold the rifle to Andrew with one reservation. The rifle should be used until the rifling was gone, and it was only allowed to end in the hands of a collector when shot-out!

A very sound reservation indeed!

John Dugmore and Ken Stewart, Maun, Botswana Nov 2006

Ivan Carter a Heym 577 I believe

Mike

Updating the count:

English/9
Merkel/3
Chapuis/1
Krieghoff/9
Searcy/1
European/2
Heym/1

.500/6
.470/16
.500-.465/2
.577/2
.500-.416/3
.450 NE/1

Any thoughts regarding the number of Krieghoffs?

quote:

Any thoughts regarding the number of Krieghoffs?

When I think back on the number of negative posts by all the "experts" here I have to

Vernon Koekemoer an 606 Enfield

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Updating the count:

English/9
Merkel/3 *
Chapuis/1*
Krieghoff/9*
Searcy/1
European/2 ****the above, and below in the list are all European!
Heym/1*

.500/6
.470/16
.500-.465/2
.577/2
.500-.416/3
.450 NE/1

Any thoughts regarding the number of Krieghoffs?

There are several others who carry Krieghoffs as well, but there are many others who carry all the others as well.

Peter Chipman, Merkel 470NE
Peter's nephew Sargent, Merkel 470NE
Johan Calitz, Searcy 500NE side lock
Jaco Duplessis (Now deceast) Kreighoff 470NE
Barry Styles, Searcy 470NE
Katte Two doubles, a 470NE and a 500NE Brand ?????????
Gordon Cundill 500NE Britt
Robin Hurt, 470NE Britt
Russ Broom 500NE Britt
Doug Scandroll 500 NE Britt


I just started reading Boddington's new Safari Rifles II. in which he states in one of Chifuti's camps there were 8 double rifle in the hands of PHs, and clients alike. He said that this was a larger number, by one, of double rifles than he saw being used in Africa durring his first five years of safari there, and four of the early seven where in his own hands, and only two of them in the hands of clients, and one in the hands of a PH.

Times have changed gentlemen, now that the new double rifles and good available ammo supply has come back. In Africa today you only see a hand full of Brit doubles, because of two things, availability, and cost! I've seen a number of Krieghoffs,Merkels, and a few Chapuis, There are several Searcys, and I konw of at least one Pedersoli conversion to 450#2 NE, and one still chambered for 45-70 in use in Africa.

I believe if they all cost the same, and all were available, you would see a large amount of Britt rifles, but as it stands today, the cheapest reliable double rifle is the Krieghoff, or the Merkel, and there are a number of these there! What I have never seen in the hands of a PH, is a Blaser double rifle! To a PH cost is the primary factor, right along with reliability. Not many Phs are going to pay $25K up for a double rifle,simply because it is Britt made, when he can get a good used or new, reliable accurate Merkel, or Krieghoff double rifle for under $10K!

quote:

Vernon Koekemoer a 606 Enfield

...en wat 'n kettie!!!!

Doug Scandrol carries a 500 Holland & Holland
Jeff Rann has two (2) 465/500 Hollands

Forgot
Richard De Bufanos carries a 470 William Douglas. about 6 years ago a prominent hunter gave away 6 William Douglas rifles to 6 Jeff Rann PH's. Nice tip that was.

Also, John Greef carries a 470 Westley Richards

Ivan Carter USED to carry a 450 3.25" Heym...unless he changed.
Johnny DuPlooy carries a Merkel 470 double and shoots it quite well I might add.

Gary
DRSS
NRA Lifer
SCI
DSC

Brent Hein, 470 Merkel
Derek (Gomez) Adams, 450/400 3 1/4" Westley Richards

465H&H

I know for a fact that Ivan now has a 577 NE Rigby because I got to handle it when it was shipped to my buddies shop before this fall, when he took it with him. However he has told me he has a love afair with his Heym.
Ben

Thanks, Ben. I knew he had the Heym before...but with the way he hunts them there elephants, the 577 is right up his alley!

Gary
DRSS
NRA Lifer
SCI
DSC

I am pretty poor in admiring/remembering the PH's hardware, but here it goes:

Fritz Reinhard - .500, German (and heavy!)

Peter Chipman - .470 Merkel (per Mac above)

Martin Pieters - .470 William Douglass

Cliff Walker - .577 IIRC, cannot recall the make

Adam Clements - .470 Searcy

Brian VanBlerk - .500 Heym (new)

Balance were bolt-actions in .375 H&H, .416 Rigby and .458 Mag

Geo. Hoffman used a 470 NE of Austrian make. I can't recall the maker. I sold it in 1991 to a client that hunted with Geo. several times Don Meyers. The reason he sold it was because he used the .416 Hoffman bolt rifle. He took an elephant with the double and other game too.

Ivan has a Heym 450 3 1/4; a Rigby 577, and a newer Heym 577 as well.

Harry,

Hoffman's gun was a Fanjoz. Very nice rifle but a tad short for me. Who ever owns it now is a very lucky person. It was a awesome gun!

Ed

Ed,
As far as I know Don still owns it.
Before we went on the 21 day safari with Geo. in '92 Don broke the stock and bent the trigger guard in a fall off a dam he was walking while practice shooting. He brought the double into my store with a very long and sad face. I sent the gun to Houston to a repair guy I knew and it came back as good as new and we took it with us to TZ. It has been to Africa several more time that I know of and Geo. was the PH on all of those hunts.
Thanks for coming up with the name. I would have had to go back into my FFL record book and I did not want to have to do that.
I have had the pleasure of selling a number of fine doubles but most have been caliber 470 NE.
I did have a very nice H&H Royal in 450/500 like TR took to Africa when he took Kermit over.
It went to a Dallas buyer. Sold a beautiful WR in 577 (750 grn.) to a collector in VA. Sold a 600 NE to a Dallas buyer. Then there was an 8 bore WR. Ouch!
A couple of the .577's I wish I could have kept not that I would have need of them but still they were mighty fine toys.
Off to Reno early in the morning. Hope to see all of you there.
Booth 203.
Better tomorrows to all!

John Greef,
1 x 470 English brand? W E?
1 X 500 Searcy.

Seems to confirm what most of us have known all along,that when hunting DG...BIGGER IS BETTER.

Most certainly when self defense is a concern.
Particularly with Lion and Elephant.

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Most certainly when self defense is a concern.
Particularly with Lion and Elephant.

My brother, Jonathan, used to carry a .416 and was very comfortable with it for many years. A frightening encounter with a wounded elephant bull convinced him to make the change to a .500. The bull had been wounded by someone else at some stage and very nearly killed my brother's client. Fortunately, Jon managed to stop and drop the bull but it was a close call.
Bigger is better for wounded dangerous game? IMO and that of the PH's I have worked with, sure.

Dave