One of the wise old members on the forum said there are two types of Double Rifle shooters, those who have made their gun double and those who are going to. Even the relatively modest recoil of a 9.3x74 will drive the scope back into your eyebrow with authority!

Only if the DR has been set up incorrectly.

As in any gun, set it up right and it won't be a problem.
I have a scoped 375 and 9.3 and neither come anywhere
close to hitting me, even if I "crawl the stock" or mount
it incorrectly when in a hurry and I doubt it would if I doubled it.

Hot and humid, sweaty hands and not quite solid enough grip on the front end. I was concentrating more on the sight picture than on hanging on to the gun.

The sight picture should be automatic and almost instinctive. Well I try to set my guns up for me like that.

And it is generally always "Hot and humid" and I am generally always " sweaty hands and not quite solid enough grip on the front end" as it is generally 40+ degrees if not 45 and even 50 degrees (ie over 95 all the time if not over 100) so no chance not to be sweaty, even just sitting down doing nothing !!! LOL


I know where you are coming from though.

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Agree, the sight picture is automatic. I learned a long time ago to look at the target and just put the sights between my eye and the target. Brand new double rifle, new set-up and trying to get the loads regulated and I just let her get away and get a running start at my head!

Hunted in SA with a "New" but middle aged PH for a Buffalo Cow with my son. He didn't own a rifle but borrowed the ranch owner's instead for the entire 7 days it took to connect. That should have been the first clue. Get this, his back up rifle was a 30/06 for Buffalo! Should have been the second clue. I had my 500 NE to help get my son out of trouble if necessary, but then again, I'm not a PH!

Anyway, this hunt was actually a PAC type of event in that the ranch was being sold and they wanted all the Buff taken off of it. Just over 12,000 acres with no internal fences that I saw. They were pretty dang skittish and we had a good time chasing them around.

When my son shot his cow, the PH shot another one as well. I didn't shoot one as I like to hunt Buff wild and didn't want to pay. His 06 cow got up and starred at us with bad intent in its eyes. The PH then asked me if he could shoot it with my 500 NE. "Sure", I said. After all, he's a PH right? He'll know what to do with a double!

To make a short story longer, he put a finger on both triggers and let fly with the front causing the back to have a go as well. He was a bit small in stature and as such, the rifle rose well past vertical, he took about 3 steps back, and his thumb which was over the top of the grip, smacked him squarely in the nose, breaking it. He staggered around with blood coming profusely from his nose and shaking his head like a wet dog.

Laughed my ass off until I noticed a hairline crack just behind the action on the right side! So much for assuming a "PH" knows what to do with a double. Since then, I always ask whenever someone wants to shoot it. If not familiar, I only allow them to load one at a time.

Luckily, I've never doubled it. But that day is probably coming!

I was out in Raton, N. M. last year with a group of shooters. There was a guy there who was interested in shooting my Chapuis 9.3X74. He had some sort of injury to his right hand and decided to shoot it left handed. I have this little rifle set up with a Leupold 1.75 X 6. With his weak/injured right hand holding the forearm, he aimed about 30 degrees up to shoot at some rocks on the hillside. At the shot, his right hand slipped and his left trigger finger hit the rear trigger and the gun doubled. That would have not been so bad but the scope hit him in the forehead. There was a whole lot of bleeding and I felt pretty bad. Luckily, there was a plastic surgeon at the hospital and he put about 20 stitches in his skull. I have never seen such beautiful work, it looked like a seamstress had sewn him up.