Dancing with the Fat Lady

There has been a lot of press lately over the ultra-fast short magnums promoted by US marketeers, but I must be well outside the square because they have utterly failed to captivate my interest. I was thinking of a new project, however, so when a certain double rifle was offered to me for the second time in 12 months, I was able to atone for the regret at turning it down the first time! Here are the details of a most interesting firearm:

The action is an E-17 Greener, meaning it was originally an "Empire" shotgun which sold for 17 guineas new. Several years ago, it was given a new set of rifle barrels in Melbourne, complete with engine-turned rib, express sights, and nothing less than a faceted diamond for the front sight bead! This fine firearm is now chambered for the .577 x 2 3/4 Light Nitro cartridge.

The original owner had sold it into the UK after my initial decline. I was on the trail of another .577 at the time, which subsequently fell through, and I had almost a year to ponder what might have been. Imagine my joy when a phone-call from Melbourne informed me that it was on the market once again. “Sold!” was the immediate response!

The handling quality of this gun is rather interesting. Even the Greener duck-gun doesn't really have enough weight in the action for a heavy double rifle, so to compensate, the barrels have been left fairly thick, and kept short at 22 inches. At first it feels a tiny bit ‘clubby’, but it is compact enough to get away with it, and the gun is really growing on me. At 10.5 lb it handles better than a .375 Wilkes double of the same weight I passed up some time ago, but is not as lively as my Jeffery .400 with 24-inch tubes. Even so, everyone I have shown the rifle to so far has really liked it. Here's another pic of the whole gun to give the proper perspective.

Ballistics are: 650 gr projectile at just over 1650 fps for around 4000 ftlbs ME. The Taylor Knock-out value is a whopping 90 units! All this with only 63 ft lbs of free recoil at a manageable 20 fps recoil velocity! Marvellous!

Initially my load development followed the recommendations of the two previous owners. I was told it had been regulated with 65gr of AR2207 (H4198), but this load shot apart for me and was too slow (under 1600 fps). Their theory was to use quicker powder to ensure complete combustion in the short barrels, however I lacked the courage to add any more of this relatively fast powder! I tried AR2208 (Varget) next, but 'chickened out' at 95gr! Still slightly apart. The day-time muzzle blast with this powder in the short barrels was blinding, about 18 inches in diameter! Very impressive, if a tad wasteful!

I can’t remember which British gun-writer had described his afternoon of off-hand shooting with a short heavy double as “dancing with the fat lady”, but the euphemism seemed very appropriate during those early range sessions! Eventually I settled on 77gr of AR2206 behind the 650gr Woodleigh bullet, giving good barrel groups with centres within an inch or so at 50 metres. Time to test it out in the hunting field!

I was hopeful of finding a worthwhile buffalo to ‘blood’ the rifle, however the dry season was fast drawing to a close. On what turned out to be the last trip of the year, I managed to dump a large sow with a nice heart-shot at about 60m on the run (entrance hole is visible behind the elbow in the photo below). The big soft-nose Woodleigh was devastating! At that point I couldn’t wait to line it up on a trophy buff!

Building nitro doubles on shotgun actions is an old trick, but has not always been done well. A well-known American gunsmith used Ruger U/O actions, but I am led to believe that they often shot loose. His SxS BSS-action conversions enjoyed a much better reputation. I have seen some horrors: one floating around Darwin looking for an owner was in .444 Marlin sleeved into the inside of a pair of shotgun barrels, the intervening spaces filled with solder. Handled like a truck axle! Disgusting! Ron Webb, an Australian gunsmith, has made double rifles with some success: I have seen video of him hunting pigs with a .375 H&H Flanged Magnum on a Ruger Red Label action.

In any case, the Greener 'Empire' is the only British action I would trust. Ex-Century Arms gunsmith Rolph Bachnick has made several double rifles on this action, and a number of cape guns. No trouble with any of them as far as I know. Full nitro loads should probably be out of the question, although W. Ellis Brown has published a list of ‘Low Intensity’ candidate cartridges in his book, which includes the 8x57R, .303 British, and all the popular flanged Nitro Express cartridges up to and including the full nitro .577! Nevertheless, keeping pressure below 7 or 8 tons (10 tons max!) would be a very good idea in my humble opinion.

Because fine vintage firearms are particularly susceptible to the laws of supply and demand, the price of good original doubles, especially by British makers, will always remain high. The idea of a modern retro-fit like this Greener is looking more attractive all the time! If buffalo are not on the menu, a .500 calibre 'nitro-for-black' equivalent might just be the perfect boar and sambar rifle, offering two quick 440-grain Woodleigh Weld-cores at 1900 fps or thereabouts, with considerably less recoil and gun-weight than that of a .577. When chasing the big bovines or scrub bulls however, the .577 Light Nitro provides a definite advantage over lesser calibres and a reassuring safety margin in the unlikely event of an escalation!

My first buff-hunting trip for the new year saw a reasonable bull fall to the light nitro double. Not huge horns, but a good-sized animal and a nice representative trophy. Not bad for the first hunt of the year, and the first buff I had seen with the Greener in my hands. This is how it happened:

After stalking a particular creek-line for several uneventful kilometres, I spied a single bull feeding quietly along on the levee. The wind had been quite unpredictable all day, so I closed in fairly quickly to about 35m without detection. Rising up out of the long grass, I shot for the lower chest. The bull went down on his front knees, but his rear end stayed up so I hastily reloaded and gave him two more quick ones in the 'middle of the front-half' through the grass. To my utter astonishment, he regained his feet and attempted to depart, but folded after only a few steps before I could reload again!

They are incredibly tough animals: the first shot had completely wrecked his heart! I could only find one projectile in 30 minutes of digging, under the hide on the off side having completely penetrated the chest. It’s a beauty, still weighing 99%, and so perfect it looks like a gelatine recovery! Love those big blue-nose Woodleigh Weldcores!

Later I flattened a feral horse as well after a brilliant stalk, up to about 25 metres in quite open country, using a small bush and a termite mound. Great fun! Shot for a bullet recovery, but no joy. Even quartering towards me, the projectile blew straight through.

We are incredibly lucky to be able to buy premium bonded-core bullets in Australia for a little over a buck each. If it weren't for 'good guys' like Geoff MacDonald we'd be coughing up several Aussie dollars every shot for imported stuff, which is not as good! I hope he lives forever.

A worthy opponent for the .577 Greener was finally located some time later, while scouting a couple of waterholes south-east of Darwin. The first waterhole hosted three separate mobs of feral horses, a scrub-bull, and the inevitable huge flock of whistle-ducks. Wandering across to the second waterhole, we sneaked in to a stand of timber to glass the shoreline. Immediately I spotted a good bull buffalo off to our left some 300m, and downwind! As he grazed the short grass near the waters edge, his horns appeared to reach up above his shoulders! The decision to commence hostilities was made in a flash!

A rapid diversion out to the west to get the wind right, and the stalk began through dead timber and fallen logs well back from the water’s edge. He must have gotten a whiff of the dreaded man-scent however, as he stared fixedly upwind a couple of times, and then began a deliberate departure out into the dry scrub. Once he was out of sight, I sprinted across the open ground and up into the sticks to try to keep him in view.

Then followed about half-an-hour of ‘cat and mouse’ among the dry leaves and spindly shrubs, with the suspicious old campaigner stopping frequently to listen and look behind, often catching me on one leg amongst the ‘corn-flakes’. On several occasions, I couldn’t be sure that the patch of shadow I was stalking was indeed the bull, and then an ear would twitch or the tail flick, and the game would resume. It was a very difficult stalk in awkward terrain, and I was rather pleased with the fact that he never actually detected my presence.

Eventually a sustained gust of wind rattled the leaves and presented the opportunity to move quickly forward through the belt of scrub to the edge of a clearing. He was facing directly away at about 25 metres, so I mounted the Greener and mentally pleaded with the bull to show me his shoulder. After an eternity he took a step forward and turned slightly to the left, and a million whistle-ducks took to the air as one!

I would like to report that the first shot knocked him straight over, but as is often the case with such a massive beast, it merely raised the curtain on the action to follow! After receiving the bullet on the point of the shoulder, his knees began to sag within a couple of seconds and I was certain he was going down. By this stage I was quite close, and witnessed an amazing transformation come over the bull. He simply decided that No! He was not going to give up that easily, and would attempt to ‘tough it out’ instead! Obviously the adrenalin had kicked in, and although he was dead on his feet, he refused to admit it and suddenly I was way too close!

Being a believer in the golden rule “Keep shooting till the animal is down”, I had a lively time dumping those fat cartridges in and out of the Greener’s cavernous breech, and it was the fifth hit which finally knocked him over for good! Admittedly less than half a minute had elapsed in total, during which the buff had not gone more than two paces in any direction, but there was a time when he staggered round to face me and I was mentally taking a few hasty steps backwards! All shots were perfect killers in their own right, the first and last on the shoulder were only half an inch apart! It never ceases to amaze me just how tough these big animals can be!

Pity about the broken horn, but he was obviously not scared of a fight, and carried the old scars to prove it. Back in Darwin, the measuring tape scored the unbroken horn at 35 5/8 inches! The massive bases were 18 5/8 and 19 1/4 inches in diameter. Had the broken horn been entire, he would have topped 109 points. A magnificent trophy with plenty of character!

According to my mate, there's still a bigger 'sweeper' bull out there somewhere on the property, estimated at 120 points or more! Bulls that size are very hard to come by these days, so I guess I’ll be taking the fat lady to the dance for a few more weekends yet!

	DANCING WITH THE FAT LADY
	by
	'Marrakai'
	There has been a lot of press lately over the ultra-fast short magnums promoted by US marketeers, but I must be well outside the square because they have utterly failed to captivate my interest. I was thinking of a new project, however, so when a certain double rifle was offered to me for the second time in 12 months, I was able to atone for the regret at turning it down the first time! Here are the details of a most interesting firearm:

	The action is an E-17 Greener, meaning it was originally an "Empire" shotgun which sold for 17 guineas new. Several years ago, it was given a new set of rifle barrels in Melbourne, complete with engine-turned rib, express sights, and nothing less than a faceted diamond for the front sight bead! This fine firearm is now chambered for the .577 x 2 3/4 Light Nitro cartridge.

	The original owner had sold it into the UK after my initial decline. I was on the trail of another .577 at the time, which subsequently fell through, and I had almost a year to ponder what might have been. Imagine my joy when a phone-call from Melbourne informed me that it was on the market once again. “Sold!” was the immediate response!

	The handling quality of this gun is rather interesting. Even the Greener duck-gun doesn't really have enough weight in the action for a heavy double rifle, so to compensate, the barrels have been left fairly thick, and kept short at 22 inches. At first it feels a tiny bit ‘clubby’, but it is compact enough to get away with it, and the gun is really growing on me. At 10.5 lb it handles better than a .375 Wilkes double of the same weight I passed up some time ago, but is not as lively as my Jeffery .400 with 24-inch tubes. Even so, everyone I have shown the rifle to so far has really liked it. Here's another pic of the whole gun to give the proper perspective.

	Ballistics are: 650 gr projectile at just over 1650 fps for around 4000 ftlbs ME. The Taylor Knock-out value is a whopping 90 units! All this with only 63 ft lbs of free recoil at a manageable 20 fps recoil velocity! Marvellous!

	Initially my load development followed the recommendations of the two previous owners. I was told it had been regulated with 65gr of AR2207 (H4198), but this load shot apart for me and was too slow (under 1600 fps). Their theory was to use quicker powder to ensure complete combustion in the short barrels, however I lacked the courage to add any more of this relatively fast powder! I tried AR2208 (Varget) next, but 'chickened out' at 95gr! Still slightly apart. The day-time muzzle blast with this powder in the short barrels was blinding, about 18 inches in diameter! Very impressive, if a tad wasteful!

	I can’t remember which British gun-writer had described his afternoon of off-hand shooting with a short heavy double as “dancing with the fat lady”, but the euphemism seemed very appropriate during those early range sessions! Eventually I settled on 77gr of AR2206 behind the 650gr Woodleigh bullet, giving good barrel groups with centres within an inch or so at 50 metres. Time to test it out in the hunting field!

	I was hopeful of finding a worthwhile buffalo to ‘blood’ the rifle, however the dry season was fast drawing to a close. On what turned out to be the last trip of the year, I managed to dump a large sow with a nice heart-shot at about 60m on the run (entrance hole is visible behind the elbow in the photo below). The big soft-nose Woodleigh was devastating! At that point I couldn’t wait to line it up on a trophy buff!

	Building nitro doubles on shotgun actions is an old trick, but has not always been done well. A well-known American gunsmith used Ruger U/O actions, but I am led to believe that they often shot loose. His SxS BSS-action conversions enjoyed a much better reputation. I have seen some horrors: one floating around Darwin looking for an owner was in .444 Marlin sleeved into the inside of a pair of shotgun barrels, the intervening spaces filled with solder. Handled like a truck axle! Disgusting! Ron Webb, an Australian gunsmith, has made double rifles with some success: I have seen video of him hunting pigs with a .375 H&H Flanged Magnum on a Ruger Red Label action.

	In any case, the Greener 'Empire' is the only British action I would trust. Ex-Century Arms gunsmith Rolph Bachnick has made several double rifles on this action, and a number of cape guns. No trouble with any of them as far as I know. Full nitro loads should probably be out of the question, although W. Ellis Brown has published a list of ‘Low Intensity’ candidate cartridges in his book, which includes the 8x57R, .303 British, and all the popular flanged Nitro Express cartridges up to and including the full nitro .577! Nevertheless, keeping pressure below 7 or 8 tons (10 tons max!) would be a very good idea in my humble opinion.

	Because fine vintage firearms are particularly susceptible to the laws of supply and demand, the price of good original doubles, especially by British makers, will always remain high. The idea of a modern retro-fit like this Greener is looking more attractive all the time! If buffalo are not on the menu, a .500 calibre 'nitro-for-black' equivalent might just be the perfect boar and sambar rifle, offering two quick 440-grain Woodleigh Weld-cores at 1900 fps or thereabouts, with considerably less recoil and gun-weight than that of a .577. When chasing the big bovines or scrub bulls however, the .577 Light Nitro provides a definite advantage over lesser calibres and a reassuring safety margin in the unlikely event of an escalation!

	My first buff-hunting trip for the new year saw a reasonable bull fall to the light nitro double. Not huge horns, but a good-sized animal and a nice representative trophy. Not bad for the first hunt of the year, and the first buff I had seen with the Greener in my hands. This is how it happened:

	After stalking a particular creek-line for several uneventful kilometres, I spied a single bull feeding quietly along on the levee. The wind had been quite unpredictable all day, so I closed in fairly quickly to about 35m without detection. Rising up out of the long grass, I shot for the lower chest. The bull went down on his front knees, but his rear end stayed up so I hastily reloaded and gave him two more quick ones in the 'middle of the front-half' through the grass. To my utter astonishment, he regained his feet and attempted to depart, but folded after only a few steps before I could reload again!

	They are incredibly tough animals: the first shot had completely wrecked his heart! I could only find one projectile in 30 minutes of digging, under the hide on the off side having completely penetrated the chest. It’s a beauty, still weighing 99%, and so perfect it looks like a gelatine recovery! Love those big blue-nose Woodleigh Weldcores!

	Later I flattened a feral horse as well after a brilliant stalk, up to about 25 metres in quite open country, using a small bush and a termite mound. Great fun! Shot for a bullet recovery, but no joy. Even quartering towards me, the projectile blew straight through.

	We are incredibly lucky to be able to buy premium bonded-core bullets in Australia for a little over a buck each. If it weren't for 'good guys' like Geoff MacDonald we'd be coughing up several Aussie dollars every shot for imported stuff, which is not as good! I hope he lives forever.

	A worthy opponent for the .577 Greener was finally located some time later, while scouting a couple of waterholes south-east of Darwin. The first waterhole hosted three separate mobs of feral horses, a scrub-bull, and the inevitable huge flock of whistle-ducks. Wandering across to the second waterhole, we sneaked in to a stand of timber to glass the shoreline. Immediately I spotted a good bull buffalo off to our left some 300m, and downwind! As he grazed the short grass near the waters edge, his horns appeared to reach up above his shoulders! The decision to commence hostilities was made in a flash!

	A rapid diversion out to the west to get the wind right, and the stalk began through dead timber and fallen logs well back from the water’s edge. He must have gotten a whiff of the dreaded man-scent however, as he stared fixedly upwind a couple of times, and then began a deliberate departure out into the dry scrub. Once he was out of sight, I sprinted across the open ground and up into the sticks to try to keep him in view.

	Then followed about half-an-hour of ‘cat and mouse’ among the dry leaves and spindly shrubs, with the suspicious old campaigner stopping frequently to listen and look behind, often catching me on one leg amongst the ‘corn-flakes’. On several occasions, I couldn’t be sure that the patch of shadow I was stalking was indeed the bull, and then an ear would twitch or the tail flick, and the game would resume. It was a very difficult stalk in awkward terrain, and I was rather pleased with the fact that he never actually detected my presence.

	Eventually a sustained gust of wind rattled the leaves and presented the opportunity to move quickly forward through the belt of scrub to the edge of a clearing. He was facing directly away at about 25 metres, so I mounted the Greener and mentally pleaded with the bull to show me his shoulder. After an eternity he took a step forward and turned slightly to the left, and a million whistle-ducks took to the air as one!

	I would like to report that the first shot knocked him straight over, but as is often the case with such a massive beast, it merely raised the curtain on the action to follow! After receiving the bullet on the point of the shoulder, his knees began to sag within a couple of seconds and I was certain he was going down. By this stage I was quite close, and witnessed an amazing transformation come over the bull. He simply decided that No! He was not going to give up that easily, and would attempt to ‘tough it out’ instead! Obviously the adrenalin had kicked in, and although he was dead on his feet, he refused to admit it and suddenly I was way too close!

	Being a believer in the golden rule “Keep shooting till the animal is down”, I had a lively time dumping those fat cartridges in and out of the Greener’s cavernous breech, and it was the fifth hit which finally knocked him over for good! Admittedly less than half a minute had elapsed in total, during which the buff had not gone more than two paces in any direction, but there was a time when he staggered round to face me and I was mentally taking a few hasty steps backwards! All shots were perfect killers in their own right, the first and last on the shoulder were only half an inch apart! It never ceases to amaze me just how tough these big animals can be!

	Pity about the broken horn, but he was obviously not scared of a fight, and carried the old scars to prove it. Back in Darwin, the measuring tape scored the unbroken horn at 35 5/8 inches! The massive bases were 18 5/8 and 19 1/4 inches in diameter. Had the broken horn been entire, he would have topped 109 points. A magnificent trophy with plenty of character!

	According to my mate, there's still a bigger 'sweeper' bull out there somewhere on the property, estimated at 120 points or more! Bulls that size are very hard to come by these days, so I guess I’ll be taking the fat lady to the dance for a few more weekends yet!