Double Barrel Rifles

[George]

I have a Pedersoli double rifle in .54 x .54 which I bought in 1990, sold by Trail Guns Armory as the Kodiak Mark III. It has 28" round barrels about 1" at the breech tapered to .85" at the muzzle, right hand twist of 1:48", five lands and grooves. The literature which came with the gun speaks of 140 gr. 2F and a 500 grain mini-bullet at 1400 fps. I've never fired the gun more than a dozen times, never shot PRB in it, never hunted with it, so I can't speak to the usefulness in the field. The gun weighs 9 1/2 lbs., is well balanced, shoulders and handles very well. Quality control was good, it's a beautiful piece.

Here's a slideshow of my gun:
http://s881.photobucket.com/user/Spence_2010/slideshow/Kodiak MK-III

Spence

 

[BrownBear]

Does it really have cheekpieces on both sides of the butt stock?

 

[BrownBear]

Guess it shows I'm easy to confuse! :rotf:

Thanks for the reply. The photos show you really know what you're doing, and turning out one great gun isn't an accident. :thumbsup:

 

[satx78247]

Also CORRECT.

Fwiw, when I was stationed in BRD in my misspent youth, I often hunted wild boar with a lawyer from Zweibrucken, who had a FIVE shot combination gun. = two 9.3x74R rifles over two 16-bore shotgun barrels & a .22 in the rib. - There is an exact "name" in German for such a combination but I've long since forgotten the unending trivia, that I had to memorize to "pass my written and orals" for my Jagdschein in "K-town" in 1970.
(I suspect that one could buy a fairly nice W-126 Mercedes for what that one cost in DM and it "weighs a young ton"!!!)

Note: Presuming that my lady's health will allow it, I'm planning a 08-09/2015 trip to southern Africa for plains game.
My 16x16 over 9x70R hammer-drilling will be making the trip, as it isn't a "valuable collector's item" & will take any game that I can afford a license to collect.

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

Had I been the person who was describing those 2 weapons, I would have said, "Those are two UTTERLY BEAUTIFUL double-rifles, made by an artist -------."

Your work is GREAT and I envy your artistry in metal/wood.

yours, satx

 

[nwtradegun]

I had one of trailgun armory late 58's. it had 2 rear sites. it was a gripe to try and site in. also u had to load the rt barrel with a minie ball and left with a patch rb to keep the left form having the minie move off the charge. traded it in for a clutch job on my truck. the guy seems to love it. it weighed 9 1/2 lbs.

 

[satx78247]

BEST WISHES on your Africa trip!!!
and
CONGRADS on being married for so long, too.

Question: Do you happen to know (or remember?) what is the name for 2 rifles over 2 shotgun barrels and the .22LR in the rib in BRD???
(Kurt once told me, but I've slept since then.)

FYI, I "have the hots" to take a CB with my Yukon crossbow.
(Our "Lone Star dedicated huntress", Wendy ________ took a buff in 2012 with a 150# draw X-bow & a 4-blade arrow. = According to the HORIZONTAL HUNTER magazine, Wendy is the ONLY person to take a buff with a X-bow. - She severed his aorta & he collapsed after 2 steps, GYD.)

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

Does ANYBODY know a place that will allow taking a LEOPARD with a crossbow?
(That is my ultimate big-game hunting dream.)

I can get a CITES export certificate IF there is such a place.

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

PLEASE ASK HIM!!!!

Note: Wendy took her Cape Buff at 21 steps. - Talk about "close range"!

yours, satx

 

[RedFeather]

While the Kodiak may not be the best double rifle, it does allow many the possibility of ownership. I'm never going to be "up close and personal" with a leopard, lion, cape buffalo nor the rifle's namesake (thank the Lord) but it's sort of one of those fun to mess around with guns. They also make a .45-70 version but, considering how poorly it might be regulated, I would rather pass. BTW, I've noticed there didn't seem to have been a great deal of demand for doubles in the older days.

 

[satx78247]

Well, the ONLY one of those that I've ever actually fired was "the older model" double .58 rifle sold by Trail Guns Armory in Houston & it would put 2 (about 500grain) .58 caliber Minies into a 3" circle repeatedly IF the shooter did her/his part.
(Like so many other "moderately priced firearms", I suspect that there is "considerable variation" from one to another.)

Personally, I would guess that a .58 caliber rifle (loaded with a 500+grain Minie) with a 12-bore smoothie (loaded with 00-buck) would be a GREAT big-game gun for anything in the Western Hemisphere.
(Cape-guns need NOT be regulated as DR are, so that's not a "real problem".)

yours, satx

 

[Patocazador]

I hunted at a ranch in Namibia in 1982 (SW Africa then). In the front yard was a fenced-in grave with a tombstone. On the cocktail table in the living room was a leopard skull. The teenaged boy, Hans, told me, as he pointed towards the skull, "That's the leopard that killed my father. My father killed 21 leopards but the 22nd one killed him."

Be careful with them. They are so fast that it's hard to believe.

 

[stinkyfeet]

I have the Kodiak 58 double besides it being heavy at 25 yards benched the left barrel is 2.5 inches left of target and the right is 3 inch right of target. At 90 yards the 2-barrels finally meet up and hit within 2 inches of each other, at 125 yards the left barrel is 2 inch right, and the right barrel is 2 inches left. :idunno: I wish there was a way to get the barrels to fire at the exact same time and see if the balls will smack together while crossing in mid air that would be cool. But I can't adjust the sights any so I have to deal with it and know what the gun does and hold off set.

 

[satx78247]

AGREED 100% = "Chui", as he is called in Swahili, is quite correctly nicknamed, "the green-eyed horror", by many of those hunters, who seek to collect him is BLAZINGLY FAST, AGGRESSIVE and appears/disappears "like smoke".
(Of all the "big cats", only the jaguar and the leopard will kill when it is not hungry. Moreover, COL Jim Corbett said, "All leopards are potential man-eaters, as we humans are slow-moving, easily caught and tasty.")

I've "been talking to" a Parks & Wildlife department official of an African country, which allows leopard hunting "on license" BUT which "is less than excited by" my desire to take a leopard with a crossbow. So far, the "licensing officials" have not said, "NO".
(That is the same nation that allowed "Wendy" to be the FIRST person to take a Cape Buffalo with her crossbow. = She was allowed a "crossbow license" with the provision that TWO licensed wardens of the P&WD were present and that they would "back-stop" her attempt with "heavy-caliber rifles".- She said that "The wardens were 'stunned' when the buff took 2 steps and fell on his face.")

Note 1: A 2.25 inch diameter hole, that "passes through" the K-5 area, would be QUICKLY FATAL to any animal. Fwiw, the fiberglass arrow/broadhead, that I plan to use, will "pass through" a feral boar of 500+ pounds, "the hard way".

Note 2: For those here who are "horrified and appalled" by even the thought of sport-hunting for leopards, the leopard is more common through his usual range in 2013 than the leopard was in the 16th century. - Recently 2 large leopards were killed within 5KM of the center of Durban and another was recently killed (by a police officer) INSIDE an art museum in Johannesburg, SA.
Even The World Wildlife Fund (which is NO FAN OF hunting of any sort,) admits that leopards are not rare and that "carefully licensed trophy hunting contributes to overall game management practice".

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

MOST makers of quality,heavy-caliber, double-rifles are "regulated" at 50M. - The bullets should NOT "crossfire" at any range and W.D.M. "Karamoja" Bell, the famous elephant hunter, said (about 1910) that "Dangerous game rifles should reliably group both rounds into a 6 inch diameter circle at 50 yards."
(Lord Baden Powell's famous, custom-made, 10-bore ML, by William Scott of London, would put both balls into a 3-inch circle from a rest, according to witnesses.)

yours, satx

 

[RedFeather]

The whole idea of the double, at least the large caliber guns, revolves around redundancy and not so much the "quick second" or "follow up" shot. These are, essentially, two complete rifles assembled as one, each with its own lock and trigger. Should one fail, you have the other.

Be careful, boys, and don't let this thread get your blood lust up. If you're not on the Dark Continent and see an elephant outside your window, don't grab for the Kodiak! They might be filming a car insurance commercial. ;-)

 

[satx78247]

AGREED. - Further, I would presume that metallurgy, woodwork, lathe work, BP quality, mechanical tolerances, projectile quality, etc. is superior to those things in 1910.
Nonetheless, when taking The Big-5, one or two shot(s) into a 6-inch circle of the K-5, with a .58-.80 caliber Minie (or even a PRB) would be rapidly FATAL, if for no other reason that that K-5 area is SO LARGE and the heart/lung area of the thorax has many LARGE blood vessels & that traumatic SHOCK would quickly occur.

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

Btw,

I have offered the PWD of _________________ that they can issue a crossbow leopard permit, with the proviso that I must be "back-stopped by" a game warden with a 10-bore double loaded with buckshot.= My old Matador 10gauge DB should serve admirably, loaded with 2x3.5 inch loads of 000 buck.
(I know of a game ranger who "turned" a "GUT-SHOT" Cape Buffalo with a load of 00 buck at close range.= He fired at as little as 10M & a wounded CB is said to be like "stopping a runaway lorry".)

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

Spoken like a true artist.

I've never read/heard that quote but I surely like it.

My favorite is a comment by CPT Frederick C. Selous, DSO, "The Cape Buffalo is the easiest of dangerous game to kill with one shot and near impossible with two."

yours, satx