doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 50-90 Converted Merkel Side By Side

Well, after waiting over a year I received my double barrel 50-90 rifle built on an older Gerr Merkel Suhl 12 gauge double. I wanted a very short, heavy brush/bush gun; a stopper gun in 50 caliber... AND I wanted a double rifle side by side I could load down to put holes in paper or in whitetail deer. I aslo wanted a gun that was affordable and one I would not cry when it got scratched.

I commissioned Jason Simpkins to do the work.

When I opened the gun case these were my first impressions:

I love the metal on this gun and the wood is so much better than ANY new double rifle I have seen. Indeed, I feel like they do NOT make guns like they used to and the old Merkels were superb. The cheek piece is great and the gun is simply remarkably handsome.

The express sites he put on this gun are beautiful and seem to work well. The gun goes "right there" when I raise it up.

The gun has a short 20 inch barrel. Pacnor tubes were sleeved in the 12 gauge Merkel barrels. This double rifle is just shy of nine pounds. The gun has surprisingly great balance and I really like the short barrels. This gun will carry great in the woods. The gun has great finished lines and form. It is short and that is exactly what I wanted and it could not look any better in my eyes.

So I wrapped her up and drove her home. Although it was getting dark, I had to shoot some rounds through it when I got home last night with the gun which had been shipped to my FFL.

From standing field position:

I shot four 300 grain Barnes Flat nosed ahead of 42 grains of 5744 Powder.

I then shot four Woodleigh 535 grain round nosed ahead of 60 grains of Reloder15.

I then shot four more Woodleigh 535 grainers ahead of 76 grains of Reloder15.

The 300 Grain Barnes loads felt like a 308! The lighter powdered 535 Woodleighs felt like 2 and 3/4 slugs and the heavily loaded Woodleighs felt like SST Magnum slugs, however the abusive recoil that many told me to expect just wasn't there. The gun had a butt plate and NO recoil pad. I am ecstatic with these recoil results.

The gun was hard to open after each of the heavily loaded Woodleighs, however... It was dim light and I did not have my closeup glasses on so I could not inspect the primers or determine what was making it so hard to open the gun after each of the four heavily powdered woodleighs, but I hope to make that determination soon. Any ideas would be appreciated. I could NOT see anything, but with my eyes NOT in I cannot say more. The lever moved to the side easily but the gun was just very hard to crack open, once I was able to get it to BEGIN to open then it opened the rest of the way easier. The shells extracted very easily each time once I got her open. I used Starline Brass and annealed each one.

The lighter loads presented no issues at all and extracted great!

In the dim light I was able to put all 12 rounds I shot from a standing psoition to within a couple of inches at 25 meters. Not bad at all because I wasn't really trying. I mostly just wanted to shoot it and see how I liked the feel of it.

I want this gun as a stopper gun so mostly 0-50 meter use and for deer hunting on terrain that will be heavily wooded so 20 to 75 meters. The gunsmith sent me the target at 75 yards and he had 2 inch groups with these sights. I would be very happy with that.

Although I have the one issue with difficulty breaking the gun open with heavy loads it may just be my shells or primer seating, of course it could be something worse... But my first impression is very positive. I think Jason Simpkins did a good job. The jury is still out, but first impressions are this gun could become my favorite. I will try to gte some photos and email them to someone else to post since I lack the software.

I started out with a poor mans' double: a double barrel smooth 12 gauge slug gun made in italy that shoots Brenneke's well. It worked for a brief time, yet what I really wanted was a shorter big caliber double rifle. But I simply could not and cannot justify the pricing of them, so this was an alternate route. It is not for the purist perchance, but it certainly makes me happy. For now.

Thanks for putting up with my lower cost approach to life.

I'd look very closely at the heavy loads for primer extrusion or firing pin drag. It may be that you will need to keep load pressures a bit lower that the top load listed. If this gun has rebounding locks, and I think it does, the firing pins may not have enough inertia to keep the primer out of the firing pin hole.

Keep us posted, this is a most interesting issue.

Congrats on the gun! Sounds like a fine project. Yes, photos, please. Email to me and I'll post if need be.

Yogi:
Keep in mind that this is STILL a shotgun in design and strength. I too would recommend backing off from those heavy loads.
Jim

I'm curious about the barrel twist rates that you use. For what length/weight bullet are they optimized?

Sure sounds like a winner. Pictures would really be appreciated.

And, if you are sure you don't mind, some rough costs might be helpful to those of us that have dreamed or even seriously contemplated about contemplating doing this this... Someday.

Brent

Guys. The barrels are 1 in 15 twist. I know that sounds fast but THAT is what Jason recommended and has used in the past with excellent results. I do know that all loads went in perfectly straight. And those Woodleigh 535 grainers are long bullets so if they began to go a skew; ie key holed, you would see it. Jason said they are optimized for the Woodleigh 535 grainers.

The action that Merkel uses for their 500 is supposedly the same as their 16 gauge so the 12 gauge is even beefier. However, I hear you all about keeping pressures low. I intend to load my next batch at 70 grains and 57 grains, and I will ensure I size the brass all the way DOWN.

Cost was many thousands less than a Merkel double rifle in similar caliber (50) that I have seen for $12K and up. Way up.

I am psyched. The gun is beautiful.

Gentlemens:

It seems to me that submitting a post like this without pictures is yet another sound reason for reinstating capitol punishment...

Glenn

Sorry guys. Work is very challenging right now. I have four photos. Who can I email them to so you can post them here???

I would be happy to put them up for you. My email is in my profile. JB-

JB---I emailed you four photos compressed in JPG format. Thank you!

THe first thing in my mind was, "I can't believe the man posted this description and teased us, but refused to show us pics!!!" But others have chimed in already.

Did he bush the firing pins and make smaller rifle pins? If not, that could be part of your stiffy problem. The big shotgun pins have big holes in the breach face and the higher pressure could have extruded the rifle primers into the firing pin holes a good bit. Just something to look at anyway. At any rate, I would definitely want bushed pins on the gun.

Has this smith chambered doubles in this caliber before? Just curious about how the reamer was ground. Many reamer makers grind reamers to minimum tolerance for accuracy's sake. But with the weaker extraction of the double a tight chamber could stiffen things up until the fired case let go of the walls. But if this guy has used the reamer on other doubles then he would know how it was working. You asked fo rideas, so there are a couple of half-baked ones. Plus I guess naything a .50-90 would be chambered in would have weak extraction anyway.

Can't wait to see your pics!!!

Oh, one more thing. You mentioned "stopper" several times, but always talked about shooting deer. Is this a deer stopping rifle like for tracking wounded ones that often jump up and run through thick stuff, or did you build it in case you hunt really big stuff one day? Just curious.