Tradition Perfected: The Modern .470NE Double Rifle

Those traditional aesthetics still attract the crowds, still deliver the right look, feel and ‘vibe’ beloved of many aspirational drivers. Not so popular among the legion of modern enthusiasts we might count the variable reliability, the dodgy brakes and the oil leaks so familiar to owners of old models. Here at Westley Richards, we see similarities of sentiment in many of our customers when they order a new double rifle. They love the looks, the feel, the timeless beauty and functionality of the best rifles we built a century ago. Now, they want all that but they also want the reassurance that their rifle will be made to twenty-first century standards, with commensurately improved engineering, materials and tolerances, all of which equate to undeniable reliability and confidence.

Many of our older rifles were made with steel barrels and actions that are not only rather aged today, but not of the equivalent strength or resilience offered by modern steels. The stunning .470NE rifle photographed here reflects the best of both worlds. It is not a ‘resto-mod’ using original parts, but rather a perfectly up-to-date production of an early 20th century nitro-express double rifle.

It is instantly recognisable as a Westley Richards with its hand-detachable locks. We often refer to these as the 1897 Taylor patent, which is accurate, as that was their origin. However, as our foreman, Stuart Richards, often reminds people; the final incarnation of Leslie B. Taylor’s concept for hand-detachable locks was delivered in 1909 and that is the form to which our current models adhere.

For those interested in history, the first type had a fully removable floor plate. The addition of a hinge was eminently practical and makes it impossible to drop or misplace the plate, which, should it happen, would be fatal to further use. The casual observer might look at this rifle (No.20493) and see a copy of the rifles made in the 1910s or ‘20s. However, careful examination reveals how much better we do things today. A modern Westley Richards is significantly more expensive in real terms than one was a century ago and we make far fewer of them than we once did.

Customers today demand extremely high quality and attention to detail and our gun-makers are on an unwavering quest to constantly improve. It is no coincidence that current production, when compared to the guns and rifles of a decade, two decades or half a century ago, improves on them in every department.

The platform is familiar: patent hand-detachable locks, a scroll-back action, traditional scroll engraving with a game scene on the cover plate. The serial number and ‘SAFE’ are applied in gold and the action traditionally colour-case-hardened.

In keeping with its purpose as a dangerous game rifle, it has a manual, rather than automatic safety. The Westley Richards pattern quarter rib, with ramp and leaf sights, is fully engraved and the twenty-five-inch chopper-lump barrels are best blacked. Regulated to shoot with open sights, using Hornady .470 soft-nose and solid loads, the sights correspond to fifty, one hundred and one hundred and fifty yards. The rib is unobtrusively machined to accept a red-dot sight, should that be required.

Included in the build specifications we have swivels for our one-inch, quick-detach (‘QD’) sling, a pair of extra strikers and a spare foresight bead. Unusually, the customer opted not to order a spare pair of locks. However, they are very much a failsafe option, as limb or spring breakage is extremely rare. They still benefit from the ease of removal, inspection and cleaning inherent in this remarkable design.

One hidden refinement is the articulated front trigger, designed to avoid bruising the forefinger when firing the second shot. Some sportsmen are prone to this, especially those with very large fingers or a poor mount, which allows the rifle to slide down the bicep upon recoil. This can also happen if the conditions are very wet and grip less secure than ideal.

Exhibition grade walnut, like this, for the stock is now almost universally requested for new projects. The colour and figure of the stock is such an important part of any rifle’s immediate visual impact that to use a lower-grade blank on an expensive rifle is a false economy. It takes a human engraver several months to make the steel parts beautiful, while nature has spent well over a century creating the beauty eventually revealed within the wood by our extra gloss oil finish.

The shape and profile of the stock reflects our two centuries of best gun-making experience. The full pistol hand ensures a strong hold, enhanced by the fine hand-cut chequer, which is ‘grippy’ without being sharp or uncomfortable to hold. The modern Westley Richards cheek-piece helps align the face with the sights reliably, so the rifle can be shouldered quickly and fired as the target is acquired, like a shotgun.

The traditional red Silver’s anti-recoil pad helps mitigate the recoil against the shoulder, which is likely to be protected by no more than a thin linen shirt or jacket, given that most dangerous game is hunted in the heat of the African bush. For the technically minded, we set the pull for the front trigger at 5 1/2lbs and the rear at 6 1/2lbs; the differing angles of pull make them ‘feel’ the same in practice. The stock & action together weigh 4lbs, the forend 10.3oz, and the barrels 5lbs 15oz, giving a total weight of 10lbs 10oz.

The .470NE fires a .500-grain bullet and we chronographed the Hornady cartridges we used for regulation, achieving an average of 2,050 fps. The target accompanying the rifle shows a right and a left strike on the bull’s eye at 50 yards, with holes punched a centimetre apart. This rifle is a future classic, the kind that, thirty years from now, people will be scouring the American gun shows for. It has a timeless combination of tradition, style and quality – and that never goes out of fashion.