I was bitten very hard by the SxS shotgun bug in the late seventies while stationed in Germany. I have used them and a few OU's almost exclusively since. I am sure I have owned over a hundred over the years representing American, British, and continental makers. They consolidated into around twenty that have not changed in a decade. Most are pre-war, but I have Rizzini and Lucchini that represent really fine modern Italian gun making (particularly the Lucchini). My favorite is a WWI era James MacNaughton round body in superb condition.
I got into combination guns around the same time, and have always owned a drilling or bockbuchsflinte (OU rifle shotgun) since. My favorite is a rare pre-war double rifle drilling in 9.3x74R/9.3x74R/16. It belonged to a good friend who took a pair of buffalo and lion with it about fifteen years ago. Regrettably, I have only rolled hogs with it since it came into my care - though I shot them very elegantly indeed.
Another favorite, and another WWI era design, is my William Evans 12 bore Paradox. The last six-inches of each barrel are lightly rifled. Ross Seyfried worked up the "rifle" loads for it. It is simply amazing. Both barrels shoot perfect light modified patterns of 1 1/8 ounces of No. 6 shot, and four of the 740 gr bullets will make a sub-three-inch group at 100 meters. That's right - 100 meters over the open sights. As Ross said, the beautiful thing is "more accurate than either of us." One afternoon in Namibia, I rolled two warthog for leopard bait and created an impressive pile of sand grouse from the same waterhole.
Various double rifles passed through my hands over those decades, and at the cost of a very expensive education, I discovered there were few real bargains. Cheap guns tended to be cheap guns. Good guns at cheap prices seemed to almost always have very expensive problems.
Then about a decade ago, I was offered a Blaser S2 with .375 barrels. I had read Terry Wieland's condemnation of the design, and so with few real positive expectations, I took it home. I was amazed. In short order it also had 30-06 and 500-416 barrels, and it had traveled with me to Africa where it took buffalo and a lot of plains game. I quickly concluded, that at least on this subject, Terry was clueless.
The rifle is indeed different. It is designed to take game well out beyond 250 meters when scoped (it is indeed that accurate), and the scope dismounts quickly to provide access to excellent open sights if a follow-up is required.
There is a .470 and a couple of more in 9.3x74R in the gunroom. Even a massive Austrian flintlock in beautiful condition. But I suspect I am likely done. Just can't seem to improve on the S2 (or the Paradox!).
