.500NE Double Rifle - "Artisan Belge"

[Certus]

Don’t have it modified to take an optic! Do the strap on cheek thing mentioned above.

 

[Frederik]

Don’t have it modified to take an optic! Do the strap on cheek thing mentioned above.

+1 Try the tactical Cheek pad first.
Cheaper and should be able to do the trick.

 

[Major Bonkers]

Don't pull it into your cheek too much: there is a lot of recoil on these heavy calibres and if you make too tight a weld the recoil transmits into your head.

 

[DieJager]

Maybe it fits me better. We just have to try it out when I make the trip south

 

[VertigoBE]

Another update, and I'll start off with a pot stirrer:

Beat it, all you "practical" and "reasonable" African hunters, with your can-do-all 375 H&H's in a scoped bolt-action! I shot this .500 NE yesterday for the first time and haven't stopped grinning since!

Anyway, back to serious again, I went to pick up the rifle yesterday, they had finished the timing of the ejectors, so it is fully functional again. And then had a long chat with the gun smith on how to get a red dot mounted on the gun. (The reason I'd like one, is not just for cool factor or so, it is for practical reasons: To give me a better sighting system than irons, when there is less light or it becomes borderline dark. It also allows one to shoot faster, even if the rifle is not perfectly mounted, as long as you see dot, whatever is behind it will have lead incoming).

- 1st idea, a type of MAKlick (magnetic and clasped) just behind or in front of the rear iron sights. This is not possible, as the rib is not exactly square, but slightly trapezoidal, so it would not be able to hold.

- 2nd idea, install a single pivot mount (front one) drifted into the rib. Not possible either, as behind the rear sight the rib is not high enough to fully let this in. While in front, we believe the rib is likely hollow (see pic below, where we drifted the rear sight out). In which case there will not be enough material available to resist recoil and bouncing about over time.

You can see in the picture, that underneath the rear sight, an extra piece of metal is added into the rib, to fill up the otherwise hollow rib. Mr. R explained that the use of hollow rib is likely not so much done to save weight in a full length rib, but is mostly because the soldering of rib and barrels with a massive rib would be much more complicated.

- 3rd idea, remove the rear fixed sights, and replace it with a mount base for a red dot. Feasible yes, but the gunsmith (who was himself for many years a PH in the CAR for Lefol) said that he is not comfortable with any kind of optic that cannot be removed quickly and have irons as a fallback. So not excluded for the moment, but not ideal either.

- 4th idea, replace the rear irons with a ghost ring sight. This is also still in the running. It looks less traditional, but as there is less material to block light, it should be easier to pick up the sight in less-than-ideal conditions.

For the moment we chose to do nothing, and that's when I went out to give it a shot. Mr. R (the gunsmith) came along, just to make sure I would not hurt myself, as I had not yet shot anything bigger than a 416 Rigby till then.

We put the target at 20 or 25 meters and Richard took the first shot to show the proper form to me. (however, he had forgotten his glasses). And these are the results of the shooting (apart from giving me a big smile on my face ). All shot's were offhand, without any support.


So as explained, the first round (1R for round number and which barrel), should be excluded as this was Mr. R's doing. All subsequent rounds where of my own doing. The 7th round, from the front trigger, I also immediately called out that I pulled it. The rounds 2-3-4 I single loaded (just worried I would double fire). The 5-6-7-8 were double loaded and shot one after the other.

Conclusion: Looks like the ammo I used (handloads from the original seller) would need a bit more speed to bring right and left barrels to converge more. The sights were relatively well centered, although they could use a bit of an POA adjustment to shoot a bit higher.

But the most important conclusion: I really like these big bores! It is much nicer to shoot than my .416 Rigby, more of a big push than a snap. I need to get my reloading setup going though, because at 20 euro/round I cannot shoot it as much as I'd like to.

Cheers!

V.

Hold on @matt85 , soon I'll be looking at 8 bores too!

 

[Rare Breed]

Another update, and I'll start off with a pot stirrer:

Beat it, all you "practical" and "reasonable" African hunters, with your can-do-all 375 H&H's in a scoped bolt-action! I shot this .500 NE yesterday for the first time and haven't stopped grinning since!

Anyway, back to serious again, I went to pick up the rifle yesterday, they had finished the timing of the ejectors, so it is fully functional again. And then had a long chat with the gun smith on how to get a red dot mounted on the gun. (The reason I'd like one, is not just for cool factor or so, it is for practical reasons: To give me a better sighting system than irons, when there is less light or it becomes borderline dark. It also allows one to shoot faster, even if the rifle is not perfectly mounted, as long as you see dot, whatever is behind it will have lead incoming).

- 1st idea, a type of MAKlick (magnetic and clasped) just behind or in front of the rear iron sights. This is not possible, as the rib is not exactly square, but slightly trapezoidal, so it would not be able to hold.

- 2nd idea, install a single pivot mount (front one) drifted into the rib. Not possible either, as behind the rear sight the rib is not high enough to fully let this in. While in front, we believe the rib is likely hollow (see pic below, where we drifted the rear sight out). In which case there will not be enough material available to resist recoil and bouncing about over time.

View attachment 586280
You can see in the picture, that underneath the rear sight, an extra piece of metal is added into the rib, to fill up the otherwise hollow rib. Mr. R explained that the use of hollow rib is likely not so much done to save weight in a full length rib, but is mostly because the soldering of rib and barrels with a massive rib would be much more complicated.

- 3rd idea, remove the rear fixed sights, and replace it with a mount base for a red dot. Feasible yes, but the gunsmith (who was himself for many years a PH in the CAR for Lefol) said that he is not comfortable with any kind of optic that cannot be removed quickly and have irons as a fallback. So not excluded for the moment, but not ideal either.

- 4th idea, replace the rear irons with a ghost ring sight. This is also still in the running. It looks less traditional, but as there is less material to block light, it should be easier to pick up the sight in less-than-ideal conditions.

For the moment we chose to do nothing, and that's when I went out to give it a shot. Mr. R (the gunsmith) came along, just to make sure I would not hurt myself, as I had not yet shot anything bigger than a 416 Rigby till then.

We put the target at 20 or 25 meters and Richard took the first shot to show the proper form to me. (however, he had forgotten his glasses). And these are the results of the shooting (apart from giving me a big smile on my face ). All shot's were offhand, without any support.


So as explained, the first round (1R for round number and which barrel), should be excluded as this was Mr. R's doing. All subsequent rounds where of my own doing. The 7th round, from the front trigger, I also immediately called out that I pulled it. The rounds 2-3-4 I single loaded (just worried I would double fire). The 5-6-7-8 were double loaded and shot one after the other.

View attachment 586282

Conclusion: Looks like the ammo I used (handloads from the original seller) would need a bit more speed to bring right and left barrels to converge more. The sights were relatively well centered, although they could use a bit of an POA adjustment to shoot a bit higher.

But the most important conclusion: I really like these big bores! It is much nicer to shoot than my .416 Rigby, more of a big push than a snap. I need to get my reloading setup going though, because at 20 euro/round I cannot shoot it as much as I'd like to.

Cheers!

V.

Hold on @matt85 , soon I'll be looking at 8 bores too!

i’ve always just had JJ Perodeau just mill two grooves on the rib right behind the rear sight and my Trijicon base easily goes on and can be removed with a twist of a button.

 

[VertigoBE]

i’ve always just had JJ Perodeau just mill two grooves on the rib right behind the rear sight and my Trijicon base easily goes on and can be removed with a twist of a button.

With the rib being hollow, we are likely to pierce through the rib... in any case this Belgian gunsmith was not very enthusiastic about that idea...

 

[Frederik]

3rd Option then, the chances for the sight to fail are very small and you are not a PH who spends everyfay in the field.

Great that you got to shoot the gun I'm sure youre still smilling.
We had our BASA shoot yesterday again and I fired 17 rounds over the course of 3 ranges in 124 seconds including loading acquiring targets moving to different points on the ranges.

So its a good adrenaline rush shot the range with my 458 Lott 500gr bullets at 2272fps and Trijicon SRO 1 MOA dot.

 

[VertigoBE]

Some pictures of the .500NE with it's new buttpad, as well as some close ups of the crossbolt sticking out and the key being slightly to the right.

And for the naysayers, who think the crossbolt should be flush: If you remove the barrels, the crossbolt, as it is now advancing without being stopped by the lug, now comes flush with the action (it even slightly goes inside.) As well the key now comes back perfectly straight)

 

[Frederik]

Very nice rifle these photos look better than previous one.

 

[VertigoBE]

Very nice rifle these photos look better than previous one.

I'm planning on taking her and the 375 double along for our week of shenanigans

 

[Frederik]

I'm planning on taking her and the 375 double along for our week of shenanigans

I will make sure I pack in some Dangeorus Game targets and we can have a mini big bore shoot.

 

[DieJager]

our week of shenanigans

This makes me curious. What are you boys up to?

 

[VertigoBE]

This makes me curious. What are you boys up to?

I'll send you a PM