While visiting Akshooter I had a chance to shoot his O/U double in 8x57R.

It was an Oscar Merkel with scope in claw mounts.

It was very neat,sweet,petite.
It handled very well and I liked it a lot.

While I am not ready to have surgery to change my eyes from this 00 to this 8, I have warmed up to the idea of an O/U double.

You live and learn.

Well if you just tilt your head as far as you can to the side, then it might just work!!

May be looking like The Hunchback from Notre Dame but hey!! Does that really matter if you can hold a "neat, sweet and petite" in your hands!!

Jim

O/U's handle recoil much bettr than S/S.

quote:

O/U's handle recoil much bettr than S/S.

CAUTION: This conclusion was reached after an extended session with Messr's Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels.

I have noticed that in the European gun catalogs the O/U doubles are much less expensive than the S/S. Is it a function of the availability of cheaper receivers, or are they just a lot easier to make?

Wink

I think it is a combination of things that make a o/u cheaper. Yes there are a few more receivers availble to build them on. It is easier to regulate a O/U so I've heard due to the fact that the recoil of the barrels are more in line with each other. This alone will cut down on a lot of production time. But in the end it's probably that the cheaper company's can only produce a O/U due to the above mentioned reasons.

If you want a top grade O/U double rifle you may pay even a little more for one because those makers are making fewer of them. The Ovoundo was a British O/U that was very expensive. It started life as a woodward but the patent was bought by someone else. I think it was Westley Richards but I'm not sure. (wheres 400 nitro when you need him)

Anyway I think you will notice that the less expensive O/U doubles are coming from less expensive companies. The more expensive Higher quality rifles will be more in line on cost between the two.

One more thing is that a O/U double in the US and probably Africa is less desireable bringing the prices of a used O/U down far below the cost of SxS's.

quote:

by Wink

I have noticed that in the European gun catalogs the O/U doubles are much less expensive than the S/S. Is it a function of the availability of cheaper receivers, or are they just a lot easier to make?

quote:

Originally posted by Akshooter:


Wink

I think it is a combination of things that make a o/u cheaper. Yes there are a few more receivers availble to build them on. It is easier to regulate a O/U so I've heard due to the fact that the recoil of the barrels are more in line with each other. This alone will cut down on a lot of production time. But in the end it's probably that the cheaper company's can only produce a O/U due to the above mentioned reasons.

If you want a top grade O/U double rifle you may pay even a little more for one because those makers are making fewer of them. The Ovoundo was a British O/U that was very expensive. It started life as a woodward but the patent was bought by someone else. I think it was Westley Richards but I'm not sure. (wheres 400 nitro when you need him)

Anyway I think you will notice that the less expensive O/U doubles are coming from less expensive companies. The more expensive Higher quality rifles will be more in line on cost between the two.

One more thing is that a O/U double in the US and probably Africa is less desireable bringing the prices of a used O/U down far below the cost of SxS's.

Both are true! The O/U action lends it's self to almost, start to finish, completly being built by CNC machines, with only the pollishing being done by people. The barrels are almost always mono-block, and being stacked, are easier to get shooting at the same windage. the regulation, for convergance, is the same as with a S/S, to get the proper converging alignment so the barrels print one dirrectly above the other. with the top barrel printing above the bottom barrel,just enough to make a composite group,on the paper. The windage regulation of the barrels can almost be done in a jig as well as by hand on an O/U, but the regulation of the barrel's proper convergance, still must be done by hand.

Most of the O/Us are enertia actions, haveing the recoil cocking the top barrel, and most are fitted with single triggers, but not selective. This means one must fire the bottom barrel first every time, takeing away the convenience of a soft in one barrel and a solid in the other, and being able to fire either at will. Both these items use fewer parts in the action, and triggers, cut cost again.

I think you will find the better O/U double rifles will be fitted with two triggers, or if with a single trigger, will have both locks cocked by breaking the rifle, and the trigger will be selective. More parts, to be made, and fitted brings the cost up. The draw back to the well made O/U double rifle is to cock both locks, makes the opening of the barrels harder to accomplish, and at the same time the action must be opened to a greater amount to clear the bottom chamber. This greater amount, is exasertbated by the larger head diameter of the truley NITRO cases used for dangerous game, so the makers use rounds like 458 Win Mag, and 375 H&H, for their smaller dia. but this brings the rimless, or belted rimless cartridge back, with it's problems. Add to this the accute angles of the fireing pins,being a concession to the O/U configuration, as well.

The over under doubles are simply cheaper to make, because of their compatability with CNC machineing, bottom line! They are less desirable, in most configurations, than the S/S double, hence the price difference!

Interesting article in the June/July issue of Sports Afield written by Silvio Calabi.

The article's focus is on the 470 NE, but has a brief discussion of O/U rifles in a dangerous game caliber:

quote:

English gunmakers Aikin Greant & Lang are offering a new Stephen Grant & Sons over/under .470 ($70,000 plus engraving), and Boss & Co. will handcraft one to order for about $250,000, but these are exercises in one-upmanship, not serious tools for hunting dangerous game. When ejecting and reloading speed is important, over/unders lose out to side-by-sides because they have to be opened farther to clear the bottom barrel. The extreme angles at which the strikers - firing pins- operate in an over/under design also militate against it in dangerous game rifles, where every possibility for malfunction should be removed. Ignition in side-by-side is more reliable because the critical percussion forces move in straight lines. Single triggers on double guns can be problematic also: Think of a double as two guns on one piece of wood and it becomes clear that each barrel and action should have its own trigger. If one goes bad, there's still the other. And pulling the back trigger first removes any possibility of inadvertently jarring off the other barrel under recoil.

Interesting stuff.