The Magic of the Double Rifle

Relatively few people today have any real experience with double rifles. Unfortunately, that also includes this author. Most posts on Pistol-Training.com are based on experience. This post is more theoretical in nature. Even so, I hope you can see why the double rifle is so appealing. As I gain more experience with doubles, I imagine I will alter my view on some of these issues. If and when that happens, I will post about it.

Even in their heyday, double rifles were expensive and somewhat rare. They are also a very niche weapon. Within that niche though, many consider them to be the ultimate weapon. I hope to show why I think they may be the best-designed weapons ever(for their purpose).

A double rifle can be made in almost any caliber, but for our purposes, we are mostly looking at .45 caliber and up, for use with dangerous game. A .450/.400 can also probably be included. Sometimes called express rifles, stopping rifles, or heavy rifles, they have two main uses. The first is to hunt large dangerous animals. Back in the day that meant elephant, buffalo, and rhino in Africa. Sometimes lion, though a heavy caliber was often not the best choice for hunting lion. In India it meant tigers. Not much use for them in the rest of the world, though I’m sure various explorers took them along. When used for hunting, shots were usually less than 100 yards, often much less. Given the limitations that express sights impose, most people would not be very effective at longer ranges, even if they wanted to shoot at distances often considered unsportsmanlike. You just don’t pester an elephant or buffalo at 100 yards normally.

The second use for these rifles, which you could argue is related to the first, is as a charge stopper. Normal hunting, even for dangerous game, doesn’t often involve being charged. Sometimes though, if you fail to drop your quarry with the first shot, the animal will charge. Maybe a better way to explain the difference in use is that while an elephant can be successfully hunted with a small-caliber rifle under the right circumstances, a charging elephant cannot be safely tackled with a light rifle. If an elephant charges you, you will want a stopping rifle.

Stopping that charge, from an animal that weighs anywhere from almost a ton, to more like 6 tons, and can run at shockingly fast speeds, is the raison d’etre of the double rifle. I believe that the double rifle is the most perfectly crafted weapon ever, considering its niche. Weapons for fighting with people mostly do not need to take into account being charged. Of course, that may be needed, but people are very light-boned and thin-skinned and it doesn’t take much to reach the vitals. Not so with the pachyderms. So let’s take a look at the design features that make the double so good at its job.

First of course, is the caliber. Almost any of the .45’s on up will be suitable, and most are practically identical. A 480-525 grain bullet moving around 2100-2300 fps will penetrate well and hit hard. The .450 Nitro Express, .450 #2, .470 NE, .475 NE, and .500 NE are all examples, though some throw heavier bullets.

Slightly smaller options that get a lot of respect are the .450-.400 Nitro Express or the .450-.416 NE. These use bullets in the 400-grain range that penetrate very well but are a little smaller in diameter and also recoil a fair bit less. If you pick any of these calibers and learn to shoot it, it will do the job.

Now that the ballistics are out of the way, we will look at the design features of the guns themselves. Balance is a key factor here. When you are shooting at a charging beast, you don’t want to fight your rifle, you want it to move, shoulder, and swing as effortlessly as possible. Double rifles, though heavy (typically in the 10-12 pound range), are very much like their double-barrel shotgun relatives. A properly fitted side by side shotgun is a thing of joy to hunt birds with, and the double rifle is very similar in that regard.

In fact, traditional double rifles are fitted to the owner in a similar way that shotguns are, and trying to use someone else’s gun under stress, may not work out very well. This is because the gun needs to point naturally. When you mount the rifle, it should be aimed at your target, without you needing to reference the sights and adjust it.

This ability to effortlessly get on target, a combination of the design of the gun and the correct fitting of it to you, is not to be underestimated. People in the defensive world like to argue about sighted fire vs. unsighted fire, in the context of a gunfight. In the dangerous game world, it seems that most people understand that you probably won’t be looking at your sights when 2000 pounds comes for you at 35 mph. It is also common advice to not shoot as soon as possible when being charged, but rather to wait until the animal is close enough so that you don’t miss.

In some instances, animals may charge from a very close distance, as when trailing a wounded animal in Capstick’s famous long grass. In that case, you may only have time to mount the gun and fire, and you will want it to point well for you. Whether pointing the gun or using the sights, the wide plane of the two barrels side by side, combined with the proper fit, a large ivory bead up front, and an express rear sight, makes it easier to get on target quickly when mounting the gun. There are certainly some differences, but I think of it much like a clay shooter mounting a shotgun for a fast double.

Unlike hunting your more typical ungulates, a dangerous game hunter needs their rifle to be loaded. If using a bolt gun, there may or may not be time to work the bolt and chamber a round in an emergency. That is not usually the case with the various deer and antelope species, though it certainly can be.

Many bolt guns, including almost all of the ones I prefer, have safeties that are at best a strong side thumb only proposition. Some are fairly ergonomic, and many are not, especially the Mausers that were common during the golden era of African hunting.

In order to be as safe as possible with a loaded gun, the safety needs to be on. To facilitate using the safety in an emergency, the safety on a double rifle falls naturally under your shooting hand thumb, and only requires a small amount of effort to push it off safe. Though double rifles are usually set up as right-handed or left-handed, they can certainly be shot with either hand in an emergency, and the safety is right in the center of the gun where either hand can get to it as needed.

The double rifle is often said to have the fastest follow-up shot possible. This may or may not be true, but it certainly has a faster second shot under most conditions for most people. Because it has a second trigger behind the first, many heavy rifles have an articulating front trigger that can pivot forward. This can allow for an easier time placing your finger on the rear trigger as well as protecting your trigger finger under recoil. In addition, the front trigger is offset from the rear trigger to make it easier to transition to the rear trigger after the first shot from the front trigger.

A generally accepted technique for switching to the rear trigger is not to simply move your finger, as that can result in an awkward position and trigger pull. The pistol grip of a double rifle is usually fairly open, to facilitate sliding your hand back a bit so that your trigger finger is in the correct position for the rear trigger.

All guns can fail, and when a literal ton of animal is bearing down on you, failure means your hunt may end prematurely and permanently. This is one reason why hunters in Africa are required to have a professional hunter (PH) with them. The PH will typically carry a heavy rifle as one of their main jobs is to protect you, the client. If you miss or freeze, if your gun fails, if, if, if, they are there with a charge stopping load to save you. Your double is also there to save you, as it is mechanically two separate guns stuck together. If one chamber fails to fire for any reason, you have another right there ready to go. Assuming you have practiced your failure drills, I do not think there is a faster option in that situation.

In the next installment, we will look at the drawbacks of a double rifle.