HAVE R E F U S E D to pick up a .458
Winchester since the day Ti m
Wellington was killed by an
elephant. A headquarters senior
w a rden took the .470 N.E. 31⁄4- i n c h
British double away from Tim and
issued him a .458 Winchester to
follow up on a wounded elephant.
Enough said.
In addition, I think the Tro p h y
Bonded “Bear Claw” 500-grain bullets I
used on a wounded buffalo in the
Moyowoshi South concession were an
important factor in slowing down the
bull buffalo I took. None of the five
Bear Claw bullets I
managed to get into the
buffalo exited.
I only re c o v-
I
ered two—the last two I fired. One
bullet lodged under the skin on the
right shoulder blade; the other
smashed the animal’s neck to a pulp at
the back of its skull and wound up
under its neck after traveling through
its spine.
The bullet in the shoulder was a textbook example of what a good bullet
should do. It was perfectly mushroomed and double the diameter of
the original. The other bullet, which
had smashed the bull’s spine, was,
u n d e r s t a n d a b l y, somewhat more
distorted. Nevertheless, it had held
together well and had not
disintegrated. I couldn’t
weigh those
bullets here in
Krieghoff
.470 Nitro Express
DoubleRifle
BY FRED DUCKWORTH
Page Design by Michael McCarty
Moyowoshi, but I was sure neither of
them had lost more than five percent and
ten percent, respectively, of their weights.
Krieghoff Keeps Pace
With Technology
I’ll concede that any good Britishmade .470 N.E. or .500 N.E. would
have done the job just as well as the
Krieghoff .470 N.E. I have no problem
with that theory.
Krieghoff, based in Ulm, Germany,
has been working hard for the past 40
years to make its double shotguns and
rifles the best in the world. This manuf a c t u rer has kept up with every
advance in science and technology.
Because of this dedication to improvement, Krieghoff has been able to
combine the fine bloodlines of its traditional, faultless side-by-side rifles with
the most up-to-date, computerized, notolerance engineering technology. The
result is the company’s “Classic” sideby-side, double-barreled rifle.
The Classic was originally available
in calibers ranging from 7mm to 9.3 x 74
R. Later on, this range was extended to
.375 H&H Magnum belted rimless and
.375 H&H Magnum flanged cartridges.
Something Missing
All these side-by-side Classic rifles
had a feature no other double-barreled
rifle had. They were fitted at the
muzzle with a removable wedge and
an integrated front sight. This allowed
them to be re regulated and, so to
speak, be fine-tuned to the specific
needs of a given hunter. For example,
a change of bullet weights and/or
ammunition manufacturer was feasible without having to resolder or
reblue the barrels. The Krieghoff
Classic was a huge success. Yet, there
was something missing.
Hunters from all over Euro p e ,
particularly big game hunters, began
to ask Krieghoff a simple question.
Why did the Classic stop at .375 H&H?
Why, indeed?
Of course, there were technical
reasons these big calibers could not be
manufactured. Krieghoff wanted its
big-caliber rifles to incorporate all the
unique features of the Classic. The
manufacturer wanted it all.
Krieghoff “Classic S” side-by-side
double rifle with standard “English
Bouquet” engraving.
Classic Big Five with custom
“Deep Arabesques Relief in Majestic
Style” engraving on side plates.
After two years of work, the first
prototypes of the “Classic Big Five”
rifles were ready to be field-tested on
the African Big Five. The design of
Krieghoff’s Classic proved to be technically flawless. The Big Five side-byside double rifle was manufactured
in calibers from .375 H&H Magnum
through .470 N.E. and .500 N.E. 3inch, including .416 Rigby and .458
Winchester Magnum. Finally, in 1995,
a new cartridge was developed in
.416 caliber, u sing the .500 N.E.
flanged brass; this resulted in the
.500/. 416 N.E. 31⁄4-inch.
Large-caliber Rifles,Universal
Trigger Systems
A great deal of top-level professional
hunters’ practical requirements, advice
and input have been distilled into
planning Krieghoff’s Big Five Classic
double-barreled rifles. All the features
originally produced in calibers up to
.375 H&H Magnum—except the
removable wedge and integrated
front-sight system—are incorporated
into the company’s Big Five doubles.
The reason for this was simply that
these heavy-caliber rifles are not
usually fired at ranges of more than
75 meters or with telescopic sights.
The Big Five Classic is regulated to
shoot a maximum three-inch group at
75 meters, using iron express sights.
In fact, the .470 N.E. 31⁄4-inch Krieghoff
double I purchased shoots slightly
less than a 21⁄2-inch group at 75 yards
with both the Trophy Bonded Bear
Claw and Sledgehammer bullets
loaded by Federal.
Hunters regularly fire large-caliber
rifles from .375 H&H, up to .500 N.E.,
at the Big Five species. It is clear that
the top three bullet manufacturers for
these large calibers are the Trophy
Bonded Bear Claw soft-nose and
Sledgehammer solids, Swift “AFrame” soft-nose, and Woodleigh’s
soft-nose and solids.
In the field, bullets by these three
superb makers are equally suitable,
although I don’t recommend A-Square
“Dead Tough” bullets. For 7mm, 8mm
and .375 calibers — which are expected
to perform with pinpoint accuracy at
ranges of 150 meters and more—all the
Classic doubles have the removable
wedge and integrated fro n t - s i g h t
system for regulating the point of
impact.
Perhaps the most significant feature
with all the Krieghoff Classic doubles
is the company’s Combi-Cocking
Device. There is no safety catch, and
the hammers are not cocked until you
push the cocking “Kickspanner”
f o r w a rd. You do this in a single,
smooth movement, much as you
would a conventional double safety
catch, since it is located on the top
tang, where the safety catch is
normally located.
Therefore, you can load the barrels
with two cartridges and hand the rifle
to your gunbearer. You’ll never have to
I was only
12 paces
from a bull elephant
in full charge.
worry about whether the gun is going
to fire accidentally because you forgot
to put the safety on, or for whatever
reason. You can get into the thickest
bush or the longest grass and walk all
day long with the rifle loaded—yet
never give a care that it might go off
inadvertently—which can happen
with conventional safety catches on
doubles and magazine rifles.
When you are ready to shoot, you
simply push the cocking device
forward with one movement of your
thumb as you raise your double—
exactly as you would do with a safety
catch—and the rifle is ready for action.
If, as often happens, the opportunity
to shoot or the danger passes you by,
push the cock forward a few millimeters. The cocking device uncocks the
hammers, and the cock slides back to
the original position. It’s as smooth as
silk and silent—no clicks.
There’s more. Now picture yourself
in an unenviable situation of having
fired both barrels at a very infuriated
lion, and it is down just a few meters
from you, still not dead, not charging
or staggering toward you, but still
wanting very much to get you into the
meat mincer.
You can throw the action open, shove
two more rockets into the breach, slam
the double rifle closed, and you’re in
business again. The Combi-CockingDevice does not uncock the hammers
or make it necessary to reactivate a
safety. This I do like very much.
K r i e g h o ff has also developed its
Universal Trigger System—the finest
in the business. Heavy trigger pulls
are well known on big-bore double
rifles. The Universal Trigger System
provides a clean, crisp trigger pull
reminiscent of the best and mostexpensive British sidelock cannons —
a pull force of 1.5 kg, maximum. This
system has eliminated any possibility
of a double discharge, which, apart
from sometimes tipping the shooter,
can be extremely dangerous.
I was shooting a .450 N.E. with my
old rifle in the dense southern Mizan
Tefari forests of Ethiopia when it
d o u b l e - d i s c h a rged. The elephant I
was shooting at collapsed in midcharge not 12 paces from me,
I didn’t realize the rifle had doubledischarged and still thought I had one
unused cartridge in the left barrel.
Only when I opened the breech to
extract the right barrel’s cartridge did I
realize that both cartridges had been
fired. I was only 12 paces from a bull
elephant in full charge in dense
forest—with a useless rifle.
Another feature that grabs my interest is the concept of one action, many
configurations.
Every Classic Big Five, regardless of
its grade or caliber, is built around an
identical action to which any other
caliber of Classic barrels may be
fitted—even 20-gauge shotgun barrels.
For instance, you many now purchase
a .470 N.E. 31⁄4-inch Classic — as I did
— and then go back in the future to
Krieghoff to get another set of barrels
for the same .470 N.E. action.
You might want a set of barrels in
.308 Winchester to stock the camp
larder with an impala. You might also
want .375 H&H Magnum (or .375 H&H
Flanged Magnum) for that Lord Derby
giant eland and a 20-gauge set for the
clucks and fluffs. As a result, you can be
the proud owner of three rifles in one
— with a shotgun thrown in — for a
cost less than two Krieghoff Classic
rifles, all having the same feel and
balance.
Krieghoff has also incorporated a
“Break-O” recoil reducer in the buttstock. This is a clever little device, a
sealed cylinder of merc u r y, which
noticeably reduces the recoil of the Big
Five big-bore doubles. The Break-O
unit’s weight also helps offset the
weight of the big-bore barre l s ,
perfectly bringing the double to
comfortable balance and making it a
joy to hold, swing and caress.
I have been using my Krieghoff
.470 N.E. 31⁄4-inch Classic in Tanzania
this season and have fallen in love
with it. It is more than just a joy to
hold. It has become a beautiful and
gracious companion—almost like my
wife, Elise. .