I've actually been a member here since 08 but this is my first post so a proper introduction is appropriate. My name is Colin Stolzer and I am the owner of Stolzer and Son's Gunsmithing. I apprenticed under Steve Zihn 13 years ago and have been a fulltime custom gunmaker for the last 8 years. I know my name gets mentioned here once in a while because I tracked my business website back to link on here a while back.

The reason I haven't been more active on this board is because I never really felt I had anything to offer here given the number of very well respected Double Gun experts on this forum but today I think I have something to show off that is worth sharing.

SO without further ado here are a few pictures of the most recent project I finished for one of my customers:







The Specifications:

2 Bore (1.326")

Action - Left Handed Jones Rotary Underlever(1859 patent) with Dolphin Shaped Back Action Locks(Stalking Safeties and Intercepting sears. Extractor(non ejector).

Barrels - 30" long, 1:48" twist.

Stock - Sugar Maple, very hard, very dense, plain figured, straight grained. Stained to customers specifications. Oil Finished.

Checkering - 22 Lines Per Inch, Semi-Flattop

Forearm with Ebony tip.

Stock Dimensions were fitted to the customers measurements.

2 Screw Gripcap

Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad.

NECG Multi-Leaf Express Sight in a Quarterrib, Front Sight is Silver Caterpillar.

4 - 13oz. Mercury Recoil Reducers in the Buttstock

Metal Finish - Action, Triggerguard, Gripcap, Underlever, Locks and Hammers are Color Case Hardened. Barrels, Sights and Swivels are Rust Blued. Screws are Nitre Blued.

Finished Weight is 44 pounds.

There are more pictures on my website at this link:
2 Bore Double Rifle

At the bottom of that page there is also a link to my Blog were I fully documented this build from paper drawing to finished rifle. There is approximately 10 hours of videos on my blog covering over 1300 hours of build time.

I hope this post isn't inappropriate in anyway as a first post. If it is or I have violated any rules please let me know so I can change or modify it as I don't want to make my first post here a bad one.

Any comments or questions are welcome, I'll try to answer as best I can.

Colin

WOW!!!!
And
WELCOME

Delivered just in time for late season squirrels.
CHAZ

Boy oh Boy:
Is Joe Biden gonna be after you!!
On a serious note have you actually fired this?
Jim

Cool! What's the bore on the double next to your 2 bore in the 3rd photo? The 2 bore makes it look fairly insignificant.

Italiansxs,
Yeah I have fired it more than I wanted to, I did all the load development and regulation work. There are videos on my blog of me shooting it.
Link to video of me shootin it.

Cameron,

That's my 450-400 3" next to it, there are more pics at this link that show how much bigger it is than my 450-400.
http://www.stolzergunsmithing.com/2boredoublerifle.htm

44 pounds! You are going to have to have a team of gun bearers to tote that around; or mount it on a gun carriage.

The portion of the video where you have to put out the fire is a nice touch.

That's some gun.

Now thatr is what I call a FIRST post. WOW!!

Oh, and BTW, welcome to active posting. IMO, you just feel free to post something like that anytime you please.

Does it kick youez??

DDA

Thanks for the comments and the welcomes guys.

AmarilloMike,
It could have been quite a bit lighter but those were the customers specs, I wanted to make the barrels 24" long with a real fast taper on them. That would have taken about 10 pounds off the muzzle and allowed me to use less weight in the buttstock for counter balance saving another couple pounds...overall it could have weighed around 30-32 pounds instead of 44. But the man paying the bills gets to decide most things, except were safety is concerned or when what the customer wants would damage my reputation as a builder.

Remington40x,

We've been in a bit of a drought here for a while so my rifle range/pasture was a little bit dry. It's not the first time I've set it on fire and probably won't be the last. Once in a while I even burn it on purpose.

Rocketman,

Yeah it kicks a bit but not as bad as the single shots 2 bore's I've built.

Colin

You have certainly got our attention! Your videos are great.

Left handed too. Tell us about the howda pistol.Same bore?

I'm reasonably strong but I'm not sure I could shoulder AND aim a 44 pound rifle.

Thanks for posting!

LGF,
I'm glad you enjoyed the videos. I think I'm the first person to fully document a double rifle build.

oldmanriver,
The pistol is a 2 Bore Muzzleloader made from a scrap of barrel left over from another 2 Bore project. The bore is the same but because it is a muzzleloader it shoots 1.300" patched round balls. There is a video of me and a friend of mine shooting it before it was finished(it's somewhere in the blog or on my youtube channel, I can post a link if you want.). The pistol weighs 7 pounds and is left handed to match the rifle. Same finish on the metal. The grips are walnut instead of maple like the rifle.

ohiosam,

Don't worry I can't shoulder it with supporting the forearm either. As i described on my website it was built to the customers specifications, if I had been building it for me I would have shortened the barrels to 24" and tapered them to a fairly thin profile, that would have dropped about 10 pounds off the muzzles and I could have used less counterweight in the buttstock. If it had those changes it probably would have weighed closer to 30 pounds, still very heavy but a lot better than 44 pounds.

My policy is the man with the money gets to decide...with two exceptions to that, one being I won't build anything that is unsafe and two I won't build anything that would damage my reputation as a gunmaker. While 44 pounds is very heavy and makes the gun virtually unusable for any normal hunting situation the overall appearance of the rifle isn't to badly effected by the long heavy barrels. Since my customer is happy with the way it looks, I'm okay with his choices. The other thing I would have done different is; I would have stained the maple a lot darker to get it closer to a walnut color but he likes the color so again if he is happy I have no problem with his choices.

Colin

Is the handgun a 2 bore also?? I've been looking to upgrade my CC!!

Ken,
You must have hit the post button at almost the same I did.
same as above:
The pistol is a 2 Bore Muzzleloader made from a scrap of barrel left over from another 2 Bore project. The bore is the same but because it is a muzzleloader it shoots 1.300" patched round balls. There is a video of me and a friend of mine shooting it before it was finished(it's somewhere in the blog or on my youtube channel, I can post a link if you want.). The pistol weighs 7 pounds and is left handed to match the rifle. Same finish on the metal. The grips are walnut instead of maple like the rifle.

Since it weighs as much as most of my bolt actin rifles it might be a tough one to CC.

Colin