Here is the way things are progressing. I received the new CHAPUIS double rifle with the very much appreciated help of Houston Bill. He reached out to me here on AH and has been amazing! That is the beauty of this community of passionate hunters that participate on the AH forums. Many of the AH members have done these international hunts for years! They know the ropes; not only on the firearms such as this double rifle craze that I am currently in, but they also understand the steps that need to be taken to take a firearm into these foreign countries. It seems daunting to me to get all this going in less than three weeks. Purchasing a double, shooting it to a point I feel proficient with it, and also getting my paperwork and permits together to actually get to the elephant camp with the rifle. Ha! We shall see if it all comes together. Here is where I currently am in the preparation. Houston Bill knew someone from Benelli which I am told now owns CHAPUIS. For years I took yhe Benelli guys hunting at my lodge in Kansas. Mike Holly was the national sales manager at the time and he and I became friends. He would bring the gun buyers from Dick’s,Cabela’s, Bass Pro, and others on whitetail hunts with us. Man what fun we had. I hear he went to Heckler and Koch and I don’t know if he is still with them or not. I got off track there forgive me! Houston Bulls friend at Benelli did some research and found a 450 400 CHAPUIS new in the box in a gun shop in Beaumont TX. I bought the gun and it was sent to Kansas. Now I had no shells. To the rescue came Mark Biggerstaff and his gun shop in Texas! One box is what he had and he sent that. By the following week he had more 450 400s and he had three more boxes of Hornady dangerous game solids on the way. Once again this he AH brotherhood pulls the rabbit out of the hat to help a guy try to get to his hunt with a rifle and ammunition! Ha!
the rifle arrived damaged! Lever was bent down and scraping the wood of the pistol grip when I trying to open the rifle after assembling it! The lever would not return to its resting natural position with the gun closed! Crap! I’m screwed I thought! I called my new friend George owner of Champlin firearms. Remember it was not more than a couple weeks ago that I visited George at his gun vault in Enid Oklahoma to touch and hold a double foe the first time in my life! George spent the day teaching me about doubles and telling me all kind of historically significant things about them and their development! As Jerry Clowers the southern comedian from Liberty, Mississippi used to say…
“he flung a craving on me”! I had to have my own double and hunt this elephant the “right way”! The old way! At least in my mind that’s what I thought.
So, I called George my new buddy at Champlin. I told him I had issues with the rifle. George said basically, damn son! Your out of time! No way JJ can get you repaired and on your way in time for this hunt! I called JJ hoping for a miracle. You guessed it! Just like the way the Ah brethren came thru so did JJ. He said he can fix the gun! He says the nimrods do this all the time! Meaning the people that staff these gunshots have no experience often times in the way a double rifle actually works. Can you imagine being JJ and devoting your life to these rifles and taking great pride in them and their care and use only to have someone mistreat your baby! Well, it turns out that when they put the gun back into the box, new gun mind you that they had assembled to take some photos of it prior to me me agreeing to buy the rifle over the phone, th hat they left the lever that opens the action far to the right in the “open rifle position”. JJ pointed out to me that you are suppose to manually depress the little tit that sticks out on the top of receiver. Forgive me I do not know the proper names for these things in a double. I am a green horn! But JJ explained neophytes often do this and then shop the gun. In shipping that leaves this mispositioned lever subject to impact damage. to add to my misery I had assembled my double rifle after receiving it. Man was I excited! I tried to open and close it not recognizing at first that the lever was bent down! I scraped the finish off the wood of the pistol grip by actuating the lever before I recognized the problem. Crap! JJ says go get a night to eat and in two hours you will have a trijicon RMR mounted on your rifle and your lever will be repaired and I will even fix the “boo boo” to the wood! Ha! Must be a French thing! I haven’t said boo boo or heard boo boo in regards to a minor injury in a lot of years!
I look forward to shooting the rifle and I will let you know how that goes!
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