Hi all, I was browsing and came across some closeup pics of a Searcy double in 45-120. It looked like a 45 bbl was soldered inside a 12ga bbl. The proof marks under the bbl showed 12 30". Does this stand for 12ga, 30" bbls? what donor gun does he start with? I'm wondering if I could build my own if I found a sutible action that could handle the pressure, maybe with a greener crossbolt? How does the stock on a double need to be reinforced to hold the recoil? Anybody thought about a laminated stock, other that it might be considered ugly and non traditional?

Lar45, the rifle you are talking about is one of Searcy's early conversions, and was built on a Browning BSS shotgun action. These actions were re-heat treated, and had a third fastener added. The barrels were cut off at the end of the chamber, and bored out to cynrical to form a "MONO-BLOCK", a third fastener added, then the rifle barrels were sleeved in, and regulated in the normal manner. Actually these are surpriseingly strong actions.

These rifles were mostly made when he lived, and worked in Farmington, New Mexico, back it the 70s, and early 80s. Most had single selective trigger, but most of the later one were made with two triggers. Believe it or not most of the later conversions were chambered for 470NE, and there is a customer of Butch's who owns one so chambered that has many, many rounds fired through it, and it is still tight.

The Searcy rifles, today, are made from scratch on his own actions,a version of the A&D action, and sized to the round they are chambered for! They are made the same way all good double rifles are made, by hand, with some of the bulk work releaved by the use of CNC machines, but regulated by hand in the normal manner.

Hope this helps! Actually the old rifles made on the BSS actions in the sharps chamberings are most times real bargains, and worth every dollar for a guy who wants to shoot a S/S double without a large investment!

Lar,

There are numerous people who have built doubles on a shotgun and made it work. There are a lot more who have failed in the endeavor.

probably your time will be better spent working and saving the money to buy a high quality double like a new searcy.

Your probably right, It'll be a few years before I get to Afrika anyway. I visited the Searcy site and he has a used Presidential grade 470 for around $8k.
I still have to make it down to shoot your 500. As soon as I get a break from school and family, I'll try to set something up with you.

Sounds good! It's waiting for you...

MacD37,
Do you know how Searcy's BSS conversions differed from those done by Rogue River? I've only heard about the latter and maybe even seen one some years ago now. Heard alot of good things about Butch's work!
Jeff P

If you're a handloader, don't forget the older
black powder doubles. Ross Seyfried and others have written extensively about how to shoot these
safely using smokeless powder. These guns are
available for a fraction of the cost of a new
double.

butches doubles are the best doubles you can get for the money in the us. unless your gonna put out huge sums of money for a royal grade h&h and to me thay are not worth the price they ask for them.

i have a presidential grade box lock under lever 700 nitro express being made for me and it should be done in a about 3 more months or less. butch said any where in july to mid august.

Apologies if this has been mentioned on a previous thread, but the subject of building double rifles on shotgun actions receives a fairly good treatment in a book by W. Ellis Brown, predictably titled "Building Double Rifles on Shotgun Actions". I got mine from Gunnerman Books.

The book is expensive, and some of his ideas are a bit off-beat, but for someone thinking about building a double rifle it can be rather inspiring. I am currently having a lot of fun with a .577 x 2 3/4 Nitro double built in Australia on a Greener Empire action, so the subject is of great interest at the moment.

BTW, I have seen an O/U nitro double built on a Ruger Red Label action which my gunsmith mate had in for repair (it had shot loose), I believe it was an early Searcy.