HOW MANY DOUBLE RIFLES HAVE WE MADE?

A recent post I made referred to the 39 double barrelled .476 rifles we had made. I think this raised surprise, ("only 39?") at how few we had actually made. Whilst I was researching for the bicentennial book, I actually sat one weekend and counted through all the modern gun books and compiled a list of how many rifles we had made since 1900 in each calibre.

My findings were, that we have made a total of 947 best double rifles, in various calibre's since 1900. Perhaps it doesn't sound a lot, but it is 3 times more than the 300 odd that Purdey have made and I don't know how many compared to Holland & Holland. 947 rifles would take a craftsman about 350 years to make, so that puts it into some form of context! We have made doubles in 51 different calibre's.

I am sure these numbers will be of interest to many of you who own one of our doubles and I will make a point of making the information available to anyone who wants to ask. In brief though for now, the 5 best selling calibre since 1900 in order, calibre/quantity are: 1st. .470/109, 2nd. .500/104, 3rd .577/85, & .318/85, 4th. .400/74, 5th. .450/69.

3 Comments

Keith Fahl on September 7, 2013 at 5:10 pm

Simon,
Do you have a number for the double rifles Westley Richards made in the WR 400/360 caliber? Thanks.
Regards,
Keith

Reply
- Simon Clode on September 8, 2013 at 10:19 pm
  
  43 in 360
  
  Reply
  - Keith Fahl on September 9, 2013 at 7:33 pm
    
    Thank you,
    Keith
    
    Reply