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I want to build a double rifle

Sebass1975

Plastic
Joined
Jul 5, 2014
Location
Alberta canada
Anyone know where I can find a blueprint to build a double rifle receiver? I have been looking but I can't find anything concrete that would help me. I have looked into sxs shot guns but none of the North American one even Browning SXS will stand to the pressure of 500 nitro express. 460 Weatherby and so on.
 
for a first build, I suggest making a copy of something you like.

Your second effort can then be an expression based on experience.
 
I think you will find that all of the old time double rifle cartridges are not loaded to particularly high pressures, certainly not as high as a Weatherby. Should you really require the use of a .460 Weatherby, I would not use the traditional break action design but build a double falling block receiver that would be capable of holding high pressure cartridges.
 
460 Weatherby max pressure is rated as 65K PSI. The 470 NE is loaded to about 42K PSI. The difference in pressure is enough to push a 500 gr. bullet about 450 ft/sec faster in the 460.

RWO
 
I would recommend you start by studying the various types of SxS actions out there.

Many modern double rifles are built on either a Anson & Deeley boxlock (with variations) or a Greener cross-bolt action.

The Greener style of action is used by Merkel on their double rifles to this day.

You can read quite a bit more about the Greener action (and double gun development) in the book "The Gun And Its Development," by W.W Greener himself. Here's a link to an online scan of the book:

The gun and its development : Greener, W. W. (William Wellington) : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

One of the things you should take into consideration on the development of any double gun is how the action transfers recoil force back into the buttstock. One of the reasons why you don't see many sidelock double rifles in dangerous game-level cartridges is that the sidelock action gives very little bearing surface on the rear of the action to transmit recoil well back into the wrist of the stock.
 
A good friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us, was a superb custom rifle maker, these guys are rare in the UK.
When he died he was working on a OU double based on a Berreta 20b action, he was going for .303 calibre to give the flexibility of load and rimmed cases bfor ejection. He was going to use it on running boar and deer in Europe.
He picked the action for its strength and OU because the barrels can be parallel to give less divergence problems.
He planned to use the existing barrel lumps and fit the rifled tubes to them.
Good luck with this project.
 
Anyone know where I can find a blueprint to build a double rifle receiver? I have been looking but I can't find anything concrete that would help me. I have looked into sxs shot guns but none of the North American one even Browning SXS will stand to the pressure of 500 nitro express. 460 Weatherby and so on.
There's a pretty good book that Brownells used to offer for sale:

"Building Double Rifle on a Shotgun Action" Brown, W. Ellis.

They might still have it. I think you would find it useful. Best of luck in your project. Keep us posted!

Old Squier

Sent Using Tapatalk - Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
 
One way to approach the pressure issue is to calculate the thrust on the action by multiplying the surface area of the rim of the case by the chamber pressure. Do the same with the shotgun gauges and you have a pretty conservative guide to what makes sense. Brown's book is excellent and touches on this. The results will surprise you. I do a lot of cape guns on shotgun actions that have one damaged barrel. It's the simplest and easiest because you don't have any serious regulation issue - one sight -one barrel. It's more fun to thread the monoblock which I do if the barrel is burst. It's quicker to make a liner if the tubes look ok externally. If you can stick to rimmed cases they look good and make extractor changes easy.
Over/unders are easier to regulate because they don't have the same rotational forces. I just like the look of side by sides.
 








 
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