seems like all of my last additions to my rifles have been old single shots... well I lucked upon on of the very few Remington 45-70 double rifles that got imported from Russia, & am looking forward to playing with that over the summer...

which of course got me thinking in ( pairs ) my local builder & I were discussing big bores one day, as he was wanting to do one... I fear this pushed me towards a very dark path ( kicking & screaming of coarse )...

I'm thinking 577 Snider, since the brass & loading dies are readily available...

we were talking a bolt action repeater to start with, but I'm now enamoured with the thought of building a double...

I stopped in at the local Cabelas last night after I got back into town ( from a road trip ) & they had just recieved a part of a big collection of old double barrels from another store ( I think they spread the collection around to several of their stores )... as I was walking by, to the reloadng department ( a regular routine ) a double barrel caught my eye... no wood fore end... it was metal, & had exposed hammers... I swerved into the used gun department... The gun was an "under lever" ??? Husquavarna hmmm... looks interesting... as I started to look at the racks, another caught my eye, then another, & another... holy cowboy batman... lots & lots of old double barrel exposed hammer shotguns... 1st, I called my builder buddy & asked his opinion, as there were several Belgain guns & a Sauer or two as well... he thought there would be nothing wrong with the Husky's with thier Swedish steel... after I got off the phone with him, I promptly enlisted the guy from the gun library, & learned as much as I could in a short time... BTW... the 2nd thing that caught my eye was the price... almost all were less money than the cheap Stoeger coach guns I had been looking at...

the gun I finally selected... ( it's on hold until payday )

a top break Husquavarna triple locking action 12 gauge ( 2 locking lugs & a cross bolt Greenier style lock ) double trigger, side lock exposed hammers, rebounding firing pins, extractors instead of ejectors, pistol grip stock, checkering & engraving is very crisp, as is case hardening color... the gun has a ding in the left barrel at 23.5" & the guy in the gun library suggested that the ding was put in the barrel very early in the guns life, as it looked like it had been fired very very little... I was planning on 22" - 24" barrels for the double rifle anyway, so the ding is of little concern to me... everything else on the gun checked out as exceptionally good... the only negitive for my purpose was the friction fit style of fore arm attachment ( but its very tight right now ), rather than the lever lock style...

just as a start, I may enlist my buddy to trim the barrels to the ding, which would give me a functional & very nice 23.5" barrel coach gun, then if I decide to go through with the project, I can continue from there...

I was looking for barrels, & so far, Pac Nor seems like the best option I've found so far, as I can get different twist rates than the standard very slow twist 58 caliber muzzleloader barrels

any thoughts or suggestions as I progress ???

wow... feeling like I have the swine flu... 110 views & no comments ????

You'd probably gin up more interest in the gunsmithing forum. Most homebuilds get some attention there.

as for numbers of units, the spartan 45/70 was imported EN MASS as compared to just about any other single model and year .. Its misleading to think that there are "very few" as everyone offered for sale sold at more than list.

PERHAPS the pedersoli 45/70 had more, but i doubt in the first year.

The husky would not be my choice to build a doublegun on.. though that's no reason to stop you for doing you.

get Ellis Brown's book "building double rifles on shotgun actions, 2nd edition" and start from there.