Thread: Tiger troubles anyone ? I have the solution

To be honest this stock is so dark my smart phone camera even struggles with it outdoors

Stunning , you can just see the lighter bits of figure through the butt , it so dark the ebony foreend tip is even hard to see , and the checking is mint , doesn’t get any better really .

That rifle is just about worth getting a professional photographer to take some glamour shots.

Originally Posted by Lucky

Stunning , you can just see the lighter bits of figure through the butt , it so dark the ebony foreend tip is even hard to see , and the checking is mint , doesn’t get any better really .

The fore end tip is buffalo horn

Originally Posted by stug

That rifle is just about worth getting a professional photographer to take some glamour shots.

I have an expert photographer coming to stay to photograph my collection for some Gazette articles
He will set up his photo booth in my workshop

There are some minute details in the stock making that I think would only be obvious to a gunsmith or stock maker

Those little details and the 24 line per inch checkering suggest Best Gun quality.
Which is interesting because there is absolutely no engraving on the metalwork.

It's dead plain which is like a Working Rifle.
But it never went to Work

Sadly Greener ( who still exist ) don't do ledger searches anymore.

If only they could talk

The buffalo horn fore end tip is dovetailed on to the walnut and then the curved beak is seamlessly fitted up





Which means this shouldn't come loose

And there is a small molded detail between the barrel channels that is pure stock makers class





And a beautiful machine patterned beaked butt plate that is faultlessly fitted

So last picture and then it goes away until the light Express bullet mould arrives or it goes hunting



There are a lot of nice things about this rifle but it's bores are the greatest feature.
Both are 100% perfect

I first saw this rifle early 2024 on a trip to liberate some nice single shot rifles.
I wouldn't usually spend money on doubles that could go on singles.
But when you see mint bores you can't un see them.

Now I'm a Bore Snob. Good bores make everything else easy with vintage rifles.
Those bores sort of haunted me.

Then late 2024 I liberated some more nice single shot rifles from the same gent and looked in far more detail at this double.

Yes the bores were as good as I had remembered
Yes the colours were nearly perfect
Yes it was Mechanically 100%
Yes it was the biggest 500 ever ( although I still wasn't sure exactly which 577-500 it was ).
Yes if you only ever owned one Big BPE Double this was the one to own.
And yes it was definitely Not For Sale

I pushed pretty hard on the day because I had done pretty well on the day.
I was taking away 3 very nice single shot rifles and I had traded 4 very nice Rook Rifles.

Anyway only 3 days later I'm making a courtesy call to check that the guy was happy with his trades.
Turns out after being able to see how exceptional 3 of the Rook rifles were he was pretty darn happy.
We get talking and of course I mention it was hard to walk away from such an exceptional 500 Double Rifle and he casually mentions he probable would sell it after all.
Well we talked it back and forth and the rest is history

He had owned it for in excess of 40 years.
Never considered remotely ever shooting it.
I think it probably picked up most of its dings in 100 years of gun cabinets.
I wonder when it lost contact with its original travel case ?

When I'm finished with it it will be cased, have moulds, brass, dies, load data and a whole lot more memories ( and a few more dings ) to go with it

It really needs a trip to Africa.. Really.

Originally Posted by whanahuia

It really needs a trip to Africa.. Really.

These were never popular in Africa
They were really pretty well an India specific caliber.
Flung a decent lump of lead about the fastest you can push them with large charge of BP

Despite it seeming to be a very big cartridge by our current standards.
This would have been totally insufficient on the DG animals in Africa

Nice pathway to ownership ,its gone to the right home which would have spoken spades to the seller , I had the chance to buy a Single Shot 500 BPE a couple years ago , didn’t really have the cash at the time so passed , went back later to try again and it is now in Australia ….aaagh , these opportunities almost never come up so was a hard lesson learned .

Originally Posted by Lucky

Nice pathway to ownership ,its gone to the right home which would have spoken spades to the seller , I had the chance to buy a Single Shot 500 BPE a couple years ago , didn’t really have the cash at the time so passed , went back later to try again and it is now in Australia ….aaagh , these opportunities almost never come up so was a hard lesson learned .

Thats a shame
500 BPE singles are a lot less common than doubles.

I'm not sure if I have a 50 cal / 500 obsession or magnetism ?
I have more 50/500s than any other caliber

50 cal Muzzleloader
12.7x44R Sporting Rolling Block
50-70 Sharps Carbine
50 Eley aka 300 3" 1885
2x 500 3" British Break Action singles
577-500 #2 Double

and sold to forum members
50 cal flintlock
500 BPE Martini Single

Looking at those photos of the woodwork got me thinking, and as I'd used two of my doubles yesterday ( sadly not rifles though) I took a closer look.
Seems dovetailing horn was the way it was done. The man hours involved in doing these plus the fine checkering and engraving mean they're works if art as well as functional tools. Not intending to steal your thread, maybe there should be a separate one on gun art.

Well all my American tips are glued on

Will look at the other English ones and see if direct stick or dovetailed

The 130 grain BP load has brought the bullets together at 50m
Shooting really well and I'm properly ready for some hunting now