Ike85123
AH fanatic
Fascinating career !The closest thing to a proper double barreled rifle which I own ... is my " Old Belgian " and I could not love it more .
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It is a 12 Bore double barreled side by side shot gun , made in Belgium in 1950 . It has 3 inch chambers , extractors and 28 inch long barrels ( The left barrel is fully choked . The right barrel is modified choke ) . I used hand loaded spherical ball cartridges in this grand , old gun . The cartridges are 3 inch Eley Alphamax magnum " High Brass " . The bullets are 1 ounce spherical balls of hardened lead ( which I currently mould myself ) .
The " Old Belgian " fires spherical ball bullets with remarkable accuracy out to 30 yards . I have been using it extensively since 1959 , and exclusively until 1996 ( I did not purchase any other fire arms before 1996 ). I used it as my back up " rifle " during my 10 year career as a professional shikaree , working for Allwyn Cooper Limited in Nagpur, India from 1961 to 1970 . Aside from taking jungle fowl , water fowl and various species of Indian deer for the pot over the years .... I have also used it to dispatch 11 royal Bengal tigers , which had been mortally wounded by my clients , Wild Boars , Asian Sloth Bears , 15 gaur bisons ( using only double lung shots , at night by ambushing them near water holes and shooting them over torch light ) and 21 man eating forest panthers , including the most recent 1 in February 2020 of this year .
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I had always dreamt of owning an Auguste Francotte side lock side by side double barreled rifle , chambered in 9.3×74 mm Rimmed , though . With 24 inch long barrels , automatic ejectors , beaver tail fore end , no automatic safety and double triggers . It would have made the perfect back up rifle , during my career .