I was just at the local Gander Mountain. Much to my surprise, they have a new Merkle 470 NE. I believe it is a model 140a. They want $9,999 for the gun. Is this a reasonable price?

I think I read somewhere that these guns have some sort of steel rod in them that preclude one from changing the recoil pad or installing the mercury tubes. Is this true?

$10K is average price for a Merkel. Some higher, some lower.

Mine had a steel rod in the thru-bolt hole in the butt stock but this is easily removable and a mercury or other type reducer can be installed easily. They come with a hard rubber buttplate which should be replaced with a Decellerator or other type of good pad. I merely removed the rod and put a pad on mine and was happy with the balance and recoil. This made the gun somewhat muzzle heavy which is how I prefer.

Larry,

It's likely I'll have my Merkel with me when I get into Tampa next month...and it's less expensive...comes with lots of ammo/brass/bullets...and you can even try it out first.

Merkel .470 NE

Matt

Hi larry
I just bought a 470 merkel a couple weeks ago. The steel rod will come out, you can buy a Mercury recoil tube the same size but shorter. I cut the rod and made a spacer out of it to make the steel rod and recoil tube the same length, I also drilled a hole and threaded the steel rod so I could join it to the recoil tube. I drilled a hole in the lead plug that was in the stock and used a lag bolt to get it out. brownells has a thin recoil tube that is 5/8 in dia that will fit if you drill the hole a little longer. The stock bolt hole is .750, and the lead bar hole is 5/8ths. I cut i/2 of the lead rod and installed it between the two. The iflle now bal well.

JD

seen a pretty clean one two years ago at the Tulsa show for $7999.

2 Years ago !

English Double Rifles have increased in price
by 25% since then and I would say so have Searcy's.

There is a much better deal available in the classifieds right now.

The deal that Matt has in the classifieds is a steal. I figure he has a good bit over $1500 in extras (dies, ammo, brass, bullets, etc) included in the $8500 price. That puts the rifle with an outstanding piece of wood at $7000, probably less. If you were buying your first 470, you would certainly need the extras.

That is one hell of a deal!

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Manion:
The deal that Matt has in the classifieds is a steal. I figure he has a good bit over $1500 in extras (dies, ammo, brass, bullets, etc) included in the $8500 price. That puts the rifle with an outstanding piece of wood at $7000, probably less. If you were buying your first 470, you would certainly need the extras.

That is one hell of a deal!

I just thought that needed repeteing! $8500 for that pile of stuff is one hell of a deal! I guarantee you if I didn't already have a 470NE Merkel, I'd be all over that!