doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Double Rifles, Paradox Guns & Gauge Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Browning Express Rifle?

is there a reason that the smaller faster rounds would be regulated more poorly than a large round?

No, but you can only safely hold so much pressure in a break open action. There is concern about high pressure rounds. Lower is better.

I have shot two, one in 30:06, one in 375 H&H. Both were remarkably accurate. The 30:06 was regulated at the factory for 150gr loads and would shoot four of them into under 2" at a hundred yards. I recall showing the target to the instructor at my club and he was astounded. The 375 put 300gr Noslers (Federal loads) into a not much bigger group. Both were later fitted with QD scopes (G&H and Hugh Lomas, respectively) and shot just as well.
The rifles came from the custom shop with signed targets identifying the loads used.
As for strength, the Browning action has those big sidewalls and large underbites, so I wouldn't have much fear for them unless one put much hotter loads in them and shot them quite a bit.

from the reading I have done online in the last few days it sounds like there are 2 production Browning double rifles out there. The good one was purpose built with thicker walls on the receiver and an adjustable wedge for regulating that protrudes slightly at the muzzle (a CCS25 without the fancy engraving). Some of these may have been provided with the Continental Set that had a rifle bbl and a shotgun bbl. the others are on a 20ga frame with thinner walls, longer receiver and they are flush and smooth at the muzzle.

Then there are the Custom Shop guns that are another animal entirely.

this is the test target done at the factory at 40 yds for a small caliber new in the box 1980's O/U I'm considering that's in the 3K range. Can anyone give me an analysis of this and does it give any indication of how this gun will shoot (I know it is critcal to find the correct ammo). On the target is says 100 grn Silvertip.

Since Winnie doesn't make the Silver tips any more you'll need to find another type to use. It'd be easier if you handloaded.


I wish that target was labeled with the shot number and which was top pipe and which was the bottom one. It looks like a verticle stringing. Heat?
Range distance?

distance was 40 yds. no other info available.

devrep,

Look for an original Valmet O/U. My best friend has used them for deer for years in .30-06 and, I believe, 7 x 57. These guns were made in Sweden, and are unbelievably accurate for a double gun, and I've never seen one that was not regulated, either in shotgun or rifle configuration. They have excellent scope mounts, if you want to use one. Very reasonably priced, too.

I used a Valmet 412S for sporting clays competition for years with never a hiccup. Same exact receiver as the double rifles, and barrel sets will interchange on them. Just excellent quality guns.

All my best, SRH

thanks Stan. not really what I'm looking for.

I've done enough reading in the last couple of weeks to realize a few things:

the hundreds of 30-06 handloads I got from my dad are unlikely to work properly in a double rifle regulated for another load.

I don't need another rifle in or near 30-06 as I have 2 30-06 rifles already.

buying a double rifle that was not painstakingly hand regulated is risky at best.

Generally, it is a misconception that large calibres damage a lot of meat on smaller animals. Usually it is just the opposite. Bullets for these calibres are usually stoutly constructed in order to control expansion in heavy game and as such do not expand that much in a lighter animal. As an examble, about a month ago in Zimbabwe,I shot a Klipspringer, a 25 lb animal, at about 80 yards. I used my double rifle in calibre .450 #2 NE with a Hornady 350 grain RNSP at 2200 fps. The damage to this little guy was greatly less than if I had shot him with my .264 Win. Mag, 140 grain Nosler Partition, at 3200 fps!