Originally posted by MacD37:
quote:
Originally posted by eezridr:
Regarding "building" a slimmer rifle with a 450 relative to a 470. I suppose you could however that would be an expensive proposition to have a scaled frame double fabricated for the 450 cylinder. It would work for the 450 / 400 as well. Perhaps Butch Searcy could do it.
I think you will find the Heym, Merkel, K gun and Chapuis all have much smaller frames than traditional vintage doubles.
I am going to have to compare the Heym in my safe to various 20 gauge doubles.
Butch might be the man to provide a scaled 450NE! How about one in his new 3rd rising bite
at 9.5-10 lbs?
EEZRIDR, I don't think you will find a 450NE lighter and livelier in a newly made rifle, because they make the barrels large enough in profile so that the largest chambering can use the same blank. It isn't the action size that is the problem but the barrel thickness. If you will notice most of the double rifle both new and old that are chambered for evrything from .400 to .500, are built on an action that is about a 20 ga size, or no larger that a 16ga size. On the vintage and the up scale brands to day the barrels profile is caliber based, and when hefted the 450s seem livelier than the 470 class rifles.
As you know the rank and file of today's double rifles don't start balancing VERY WELL till you get into the over $20K rifles. IMO the rifles like Krieghoff, and Chapuis are made on actions that are too small, and that is more the reason they seem barrel heavy, while the Merkel, and Heym are made on larger actions and feel better in the larger chamberings .470, and .500 and the Merkel could be a lot more lively in the 375 H&H, and the 450/400 if the barrel's profile was slimmer. Heym does slim down the 450/400 and 450NE and so feel less barrel heavy in thos chemberings that the Merkel, K-gun, and the Chapuis. The action weight is between the hands and plays less in the balanced feel than barrel profile! Merkel, K-gun and Chapuis use the same profile to be able to use a common size rib set, and wedge size, while Heym is more chambering sized in the barrels and ribs. In the Merkel the same barrel profile is used on the 416, 375,450/400, 470NE,and the 500NE, so as far as livelieness goes the 500NE handles the best, but is light for the recoil end of the rifle.
Vintqage rifles by good makers are all ballanced perfectly no matter the chambering, yet still weighted properly for the chambering.
