It looks like I'll be meeting a gent tomorrow to buy his double. Here's what I intend to look for... What am I missing?

- Cracks in the stock, especially in wrist/tang
- Barrel for loosening of 'joints'[?] (hang and knuckle rap for other than a solid clunk noise)
- Bore/chamber condition

Thanks.

Take off the fore arm and twist barrel against the action to check for looseness at the hook. Repairable, but should be identified at purchase and adjusted for.

Bob

What kind of gun is this? Assuming this is a fairly good quality double rifle and is priced accordingly, then:

Stock head needs to be checked for punky wood from oil soaking. You need to remove the stock for this.

If the gun is tight, you need to check to make sure it has not been put back on face improperly by a hack.

Overstressed rifling. Do you know what this looks like?

Improper repairs and non-original modifications that will reduce value.

There's really too many things to list. You should be able to cull the obvious turkeys on your own, and there's no sense in having those evaluated by a pro. If it looks good to you, and you like it, then get it on to a qualified gunmaker for a thorough evaluation, and make the sale conditional on it. If the seller has a problem with that, keep looking.

There are very, very few gunsmiths in the US who are qualified to evaluate a good quality double rifle. Barring blind luck, a do it yourself amateur can only do himself a disservice.
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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

I like to remove the forend and place the buttstock up to my hip and holding the rifle by the grip only shake the barrels up and down and side to side.
You will feel the slightest amount of looseness.
If it has a scope on claw mounts you can test them the same way by grabbing the scope by the occular lens and shaking it while you support the rest of the rifle with your opposing hand.

Also if the the double is vintage be sure to look closely at the bores. We all know how corrosive coridite was but if you see a problem be sure it's pitting. All of the older Euoupeion rifle barrels were made with a higher nickel content which tended to chafe when the rifling was cut and looks a lot worse than it was.

quote:

Originally posted by 400 Nitro Express:
What kind of gun is this? Assuming this is a fairly good quality double rifle and is priced accordingly, then:

Are you looking at Tom's Merkel

Cordite is a conventional double base semi-smokeless propellant and, as such, is non-corrosive. However, the British used corrosive Berdan caps up to the mid '50s. Cordite was erosive when the barrels weren't allowed to cool due to the high burning temp caused by the high nitroglycerine content. The flame erosion from this can hide small pits.
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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

Buying a used double can be a blissful event or a heavily mined Dragon's Tooth Tank Trap.

It truely is Caveat Emptor. There are no dumb questions, just dummies that don't ask the right questions. If you don't know then you need someone who does to check it out. There is no disgrace in not knowing, just that sinking feeling when you realize there is a problem and the deal has already been done!

Thanks guys. The gun turned out to be...like new in the box. Needless to say I bought it. I'll post a little more later.