New Chapuis 470NE

Nice rifle Phil. I am sure you will find a accurate load for it and use it to wallop a nice buf in July. See you at DSC!
 
Update on the progress with the Chapuis.

1. After DSC met with local and recommended gunsmith to do recoil reducer work. Nice gent, has his own double and has a buffalo on the wall in his shop. He immediately told me he preferred to send work on doubles to this gentleman in Oklahoma........yep you guessed it, JJ Perodeau. So off to Okie just the buttstock went. JJ turned this work around in amazing time and it was ready to go and shipped during SCI. I was shocked to get it back so fast.

2. Trijicon RMR mounting turned into a challenge I wasn't expecting. I won't boar you with the details, but in hindsight had I known the buttstock was going to JJ and the sight mounting would be an issue, I'd have had the entire rifle sent to JJ to have the rib milled to accept the RMR with the base I already had. Adding to the mix, the local gunsmith I was referred to went on a month long vacation that he is still on. Alternative path was to visit my gunsmith at the range I shoot at, have used him quite a bit and have always liked his work. I just wasn't sure he had ever worked on doubles. Turns out he had and a few Sundays ago within a couple hours he had machined up a solution and the RMR was on the rifle.. I couldn't believe my luck to twice in a row have such quick turnaround. The sight is now mounted where the rear Recknagle base is that you can see in the last pick from my original post. And it's even lower than the rib milling route would've been. And the rib now acts as a backstop under recoil to prevent the base from any movement. It worked out well I think.

So on to load development. I tried initially to do this shooting at 25 yards off of the sticks. It sort of worked, but sort of didn't. Just a little too much movement that threw off results that drove this OCD engineer / hand loader into a perturbed state.

So I'm on the phone with @Houston Bill thinking out loud about it when we came up with an idea. I used to have a Lead Sled. Used to. I got rid of it, not because I was afraid of breaking stocks with it, although I believe you could if you use enough weight on it, but because I just couldn't stand shooting with it. There's just too much contraption there for me personally to get into a good shooting position.

So the next idea was to use my older mechanical rest which really doesn't eat any recoil, but while it's not perfect for shooting position, it's ok. But now using the sand bags they have on the benches at my range, use them to weigh down the front of the rest and hanging off towards the rear. This combined with firm grip, sweatshirt, PAST pad and not to mention the recoil reducer tuned out to be the cat's backside. It was quite pleasant to shoot this way and dead still.

My one and only load I was happy with on my Searcy was 109gr of H4831 with the 500gr A-Frame. Turns out that is a great load for the Chapuis with the center to center spread of roughly 1 inch. At 109.5gr of same powder, the holes were just touching with the left barrel on left and right on right. Personally I think it makes more sense to use a load where the spread is close to what it is at the muzzle, so 109gr it is for the A-Frame.

Next up last week was the North Fork bonded cores. Loaded at 109, 110 and 111 grains, the 111 load was definitely converging, but it wasn't as good as the A-Frame load. Today I was at the range with 111, 111.5 and 112 grain loads in both the bonded cores and their Cup Point Solids. The 111gr load was best in the CPS bullets. At 111.5 they were overlapping a bit and at 112 had crossed. 112gr was best load for the softs. Sparing anymore verbiage, I'm happy.


Sorry for the chicken scratch, difficult to write on a target as it's wobbling, but that's the bonded cores load (SS = Semi Spitzer)

IMG_1533.jpeg



Cup Point Solids (CPS) is next.

IMG_1534.jpeg


I haven't chrono'd these, but hope to soon.
 
A few years ago @AZDAVE called me with a very nice offer on a Searcy double rifle in .470NE. He even dropped it off with me on his way through Phoenix on his way to an elk hunt to try it out first. I really had no idea how to check the LOP on my own, but I figured it was just a bit long. The rifle had a couple other things missing that I would have preferred too, but it was a great opportunity to start off the journey into double rifles. So I bought it and enjoyed it, but in the last year I wanted to either make some changes to it or venture off and buy a new rifle made more specifically to me.

Last year about this time, actually a bit before DSC, I made my way up to William Larkin Moore and Sons who I'm sure many of you have seen at the shows. Dan Moore is a good gent and the shop is a joy to visit. I could spend a better part of a day drooling over in particular their fine side by side double shotguns. But I spent time talking to Dan about a Chapuis double in .470NE. He was telling me how he was ordering them a bit specific for the shop and what he thought his customers would like. The problem last year was Chapuis seemed to be still running a bit slow from Covid and the overall supply chain issues. So I kind of put if on pause until a week or so ago.

Long story short we made a deal on this now called Elan (formerly Brousse) model on Thursday last week which included trading him the Searcy for. Thanks for Uncle Joe and his minions, I only received permission from the gov't to take delivery of the gun this morning. I was working from home initially this morning when they called, but went and picked it up on my way to the office at lunch time.

A few of the highlights:

1. Case colored as you can see.
2. Dan had the LOP set to 14 7/8" which fits me perfectly.
3. Dan orders them setup for a scope as you can see by the mount just behind the leaf sights. He also includes a set of 30mm Talley rings with the purchase. The rear ring I surmise uses the Recknagle base at the rear you have to zoom in on the pic to see it). I have no intent to put a scope on it, but it's nice to have the option.
4. Towards the front end of the barrels on the underside is a hole tapped for a scope stud. Presently there is a screw in that can be removed and screw the stud into. Dan includes the front stud as well as a rear one if you wish to install in the stock. I plan to do just that as I don't do the African carry thing.
5. I plan to have a mercury recoil reducer installed in the stock by a local gunsmith that Dan recommended.
6. The rifle is also an ejector type.
7. I will also be mounting my Trijicon RMR sight that I kept from the Searcy it was on.

Forgive the poor pic quality. It was a long day today and I was also interested in the Mich/Wash game tonite. And then getting ready to leave for Dallas tomorrow.

Thanks to @ActionBob and @rinehart0050, both of these gents took phone calls from me with various questions about their Chapuis experiences. Again a special thanks to @AZDAVE, perhaps the nicest gun enabler this forum has btw :), we've had many conversations about doubles and he has taught me much. Thanks much Dave!

Now for the poor pics:
View attachment 579331View attachment 579332View attachment 579333View attachment 579334View attachment 579335View attachment 579336

View attachment 579329


View attachment 579330



View attachment 579328
 
Update on the progress with the Chapuis.

1. After DSC met with local and recommended gunsmith to do recoil reducer work. Nice gent, has his own double and has a buffalo on the wall in his shop. He immediately told me he preferred to send work on doubles to this gentleman in Oklahoma........yep you guessed it, JJ Perodeau. So off to Okie just the buttstock went. JJ turned this work around in amazing time and it was ready to go and shipped during SCI. I was shocked to get it back so fast.

2. Trijicon RMR mounting turned into a challenge I wasn't expecting. I won't boar you with the details, but in hindsight had I known the buttstock was going to JJ and the sight mounting would be an issue, I'd have had the entire rifle sent to JJ to have the rib milled to accept the RMR with the base I already had. Adding to the mix, the local gunsmith I was referred to went on a month long vacation that he is still on. Alternative path was to visit my gunsmith at the range I shoot at, have used him quite a bit and have always liked his work. I just wasn't sure he had ever worked on doubles. Turns out he had and a few Sundays ago within a couple hours he had machined up a solution and the RMR was on the rifle.. I couldn't believe my luck to twice in a row have such quick turnaround. The sight is now mounted where the rear Recknagle base is that you can see in the last pick from my original post. And it's even lower than the rib milling route would've been. And the rib now acts as a backstop under recoil to prevent the base from any movement. It worked out well I think.

So on to load development. I tried initially to do this shooting at 25 yards off of the sticks. It sort of worked, but sort of didn't. Just a little too much movement that threw off results that drove this OCD engineer / hand loader into a perturbed state.

So I'm on the phone with @Houston Bill thinking out loud about it when we came up with an idea. I used to have a Lead Sled. Used to. I got rid of it, not because I was afraid of breaking stocks with it, although I believe you could if you use enough weight on it, but because I just couldn't stand shooting with it. There's just too much contraption there for me personally to get into a good shooting position.

So the next idea was to use my older mechanical rest which really doesn't eat any recoil, but while it's not perfect for shooting position, it's ok. But now using the sand bags they have on the benches at my range, use them to weigh down the front of the rest and hanging off towards the rear. This combined with firm grip, sweatshirt, PAST pad and not to mention the recoil reducer tuned out to be the cat's backside. It was quite pleasant to shoot this way and dead still.

My one and only load I was happy with on my Searcy was 109gr of H4831 with the 500gr A-Frame. Turns out that is a great load for the Chapuis with the center to center spread of roughly 1 inch. At 109.5gr of same powder, the holes were just touching with the left barrel on left and right on right. Personally I think it makes more sense to use a load where the spread is close to what it is at the muzzle, so 109gr it is for the A-Frame.

Next up last week was the North Fork bonded cores. Loaded at 109, 110 and 111 grains, the 111 load was definitely converging, but it wasn't as good as the A-Frame load. Today I was at the range with 111, 111.5 and 112 grain loads in both the bonded cores and their Cup Point Solids. The 111gr load was best in the CPS bullets. At 111.5 they were overlapping a bit and at 112 had crossed. 112gr was best load for the softs. Sparing anymore verbiage, I'm happy.


Sorry for the chicken scratch, difficult to write on a target as it's wobbling, but that's the bonded cores load (SS = Semi Spitzer)

View attachment 592127


Cup Point Solids (CPS) is next.

View attachment 592128

I haven't chrono'd these, but hope to soon.
While this is very nice regulation I use only 84 grains of RL 15.5 and get 0.6 inch regulation at much less recoil that you are getting using 109 grains of your powder. My years of DR reloading is the less grains of powder that provides the desired FPS will always and I mean always will produce far less recoil
 
A nice rifle. I have heard nothing but good things about them.

A PH friend of mine bought a used .500 3 seasons ago. It has worked flawless and is very accurate.

Lon
My error it is a .470

Lon
 
I’m not sure how I missed this but absolutely love the CCH and Buffalo on the underside. Wish my Chapuis 470 had both
 
Congratulations on your Chapuis. I am a big fan of Chapuis doubles and have used my 375 on four African hunts.
you will love it.
 

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