the performance and light recoil of the.450-400-3-inch. So I managed to get inthe first order for a Heym PH in thatchambering.Donna has no problems(or pain) with a Ruger No. 1 in .450-400-3-inch. I thought it would be agood thing to have a double we couldshare.So, in due time, the first Heym PH

in .450-400-3-inch arrived. It’sgorgeous. Engraving is nice, but cleanmetal ain’t bad, and the Heym PH istrim and beautiful. I ordered it with26-inch barrels and a dead-straightstock with no cheekpiece, so rightiesand lefties alike could use it. At aboutten pounds (just right) the riflehandles like a dream, and regulationwith Hornady ammo is perfect. WhenI do my part, the barrels print side-by-side at 50 yards. Recoil is present butnot unpleasant.So far we’ve had the Heym PH .450-

400 on two safaris, in Botswana inApril and the Zambezi Valley in June.In Botswana, Donna used it on herfirst elephant and, almost but notquite, her first use of a double rifle andopen sights. She and Ivan Carter werestalking a fine bull hidden behind atall bush, hoping for a side-on brainshot. They moved right a few steps toclear the brush, but apparently thebull heard them. He moved to his left

(also our right), and they had a head-on encounter at about six yards.Donna wobbled a bit left on the trickyfrontal brain shot, but that’s what adouble rifle is all about. As the bullspun around she saved the day with afast second shot, and when we caughtup she made a perfect shoulder shot.Yes, the .450-400 is adequate forelephant, even those Botswanamonsters.As I write these lines I’ve just

finished a Zimbabwe safari, carryingthe .450-400 for myself. I started with atuskless elephant on license, butalthough we saw a couple, we wereunable to winkle them out of theirherds in thick jess. There were multi-ple mock charges, but thankfully, noshots fired, and I found the Heym PHin my hands to be extremely comfort-ing. In midstream we made an areachange, and a National Parks rationquota bull permit became available.PHAndrew Dawson found a bull thatfit the criteria, and as we approachedfor a shot he came in a full-on charge.Andrew shot just after me, and I’mvery glad he did, but the video replaywas quite clear. The little .450-400stopped the charge cold.We also had some time to hunt

buffalo. After playing cat-and-mousewith a big herd we caught a lovely old

bull in the clear on our side, the massof buffalo just a few yards behind him.The shot was pushing 90 yards, notnecessarily a long shot for a well-regu-lated double, but a long shot for mewith iron sights. The presentation wasgood, slightly quartering to, and I hadtime to kneel down and get steady.The first shot with a Hornady DGX(Dangerous Game Expanding) lookedgood, but the bull swapped ends andran behind a leafy tree. Just as hedisappeared I fired the second barrel,but I knew the hit was a bit low andforward.The herd exploded into motion, and

there was no way to pick out the rightbuffaloes. Then they stopped andlooked back, and we imagined(hoped?) that our bull was downbehind that tree. Indeed he was, downand out less than 40 yards from receiv-ing that first bullet. If I was primarilyinterested in hunting elephant I mightconsider one of the larger cartridges,whether .450-3 ¼-inch, .470, or .500.But if I were looking for a double forbuffalo and such that I might somedayuse on elephant, I’d choose the .450-400-3-inch. And if I were looking for awell made, reasonably priced doublerifle I’d take a close look at the HeymPH – in whatever cartridge appealedto me. .

The Heym PH is a simplified version oftheir time-proven Model 88-B Safari,with good wood but no engraving. Theaction is a “triple lock” boxlock withtwo underlugs and Greener crossbolt,with raised cocking indicators left andright of the opening lever.

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Much credit for the resurgenceof the double rifle belongs tothe German firm of Heym. In

the mid-1980s Heym’s Model 88-BSafari was one of the first newdouble rifles marketed in the UnitedStates. It was a time when nitroexpress ammo was almost unobtain-able and the classic double seemeddestined to go the way of the dodobird. Back then it was actually pricedsimilar to vintage boxlock “workingdoubles,” but it offered new steeland modern machining.Times have changed, and the

double rifle has come back strong. Thedouble requires much hand fitting,and there’s that knotty little problemof getting both barrels to shoottogether. So the double is more costlythan most (not all) bolt actions. But thegap has narrowed, with more worknow done with modern machining.New, attractively priced doubles likethe Merkel and Krieghoff have comeinto the market; and at the same time,as desirability increased and inventorydecreased, prices for vintage doubleshave skyrocketed. During this periodthe Heym 88-B Safari increased inprice considerably, and for some yearsHeym has been fairly quiet in thedouble rifle market.Enter the newest Heym double, the

88-B Professional Hunter, or “PH.”The Heym PH is essentially an 88-BSafari simplified, and thus moreeconomical. It uses the exact sameboxlock action with double underlugsand Greener crossbolt. It is an ejectorgun with cocking indicators left andright on the tang. It is built by hand,but the silver-finish receiver has noengraving, and primary options arelimited to barrel length and stockdimensions except for one importantdifference. The Heym PH is availablein more chamberings than any other“more or less production” double rifle.Ten centerfire rifle cartridges, plus 20-gauge barrels are available (additionalbarrels are also available).Available rifle cartridges are .300

Winchester Magnum, .375 H&H, .375Flanged, .416 Rigby, .500/.416,

.450/.400-3-inch, .458 WinchesterMagnum, .450-3¼ inch NE, .470 NE,and .500-3-inch NE.Personally, I’m jazzed by the rimmed

cartridges. Compared to a bolt gun, adouble has relatively weak extraction,so a cartridge with a rim for the extrac-tors/ejectors to bear on is a sensiblehedge against a slightly sticky case.However, in recent years the choiceshave been limited. The .375 Flangedand .500-3-inch have both made come-backs, despite current availability inthe U.S. only from smaller manufac-turers such as Superior. The .500-416, aKrieghoff development, is a greatcartridge, but also not readily avail-able in the U.S. Most available andmost popular has been the .470, avail-able from Federal for 20 years.The Heym PH is available in all of

these rimmed cartridges, but there aretwo additional chamberings that I findof special interest, .450-400-3-inch and.450-3¼-inch NE. Both are vintagerimmed cartridges, once quite popularin both double rifles and single-shots.Hornady has reintroduced both inavailable and affordable factory loads.The Heym PH is the first moderndouble rifle to be regulated withHornady ammo.Okay, what do I like about these

cartridges? The .450-400 (.450 casenecked down to a nominal .40 caliber)propels a long, stable 400-grain bulletat about 2,100 fps for about 4,000 foot-pounds of energy. With solids it was

found thoroughly adequate onelephant. In today’s Africa it is stilladequate for elephant, but I consider itabsolutely perfect for buffalo. Itsadvantage, compared to the .450-and-over cartridges, is that it producesvery mild recoil.The .450-3 ¼-inch was John Rigby’s

1898 cartridge, the first big bore casedesigned for smokeless powder. Itsformula of a 480-grain bullet at 2,150fps, producing 5,000 foot-pounds ofenergy, has been widely duplicated.However, the advantage of the .450-3¼-inch is that its straight case can behoused in a trimmer action thancartridges based on the .500 case(such as the .470), and since itsstraight case has less powder capac-ity, it offers better load density withmodern powders.The last couple of years I’ve used

the .450-3 ¼-inch in a Rigby doublewith perfect satisfaction. A buddy ofmine, professional hunter Ivan Carter,also has a .450-3 ¼-inch and he’s usedit as his backup rifle for years. His is afairly ornate Heym 88-B Safari, anduntil now his is the first and only riflebuilt by Heym in that chambering. Hestarted with a set of .458 WinchesterMagnum barrels and had Heymrechamber them to .450-3 ¼-inch.Me, well, I used Heym doubles back

in the 1980s in both .470 and .500, andI was intrigued by the sleek, cleanlines of the new PH model. I didn’tneed another true big bore, but I love

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HEYM PHA sensible doublein lots of goodchamberingsBY CRAIG BODDINGTON

My shot on this Zambezi Valley buffalo was about 90 yards, no problem for a well-regulated dou-ble like the Heym PH but pushing it with iron sights. The light was good and the presentationwas ideal, and Hornady’s DGX bullet dropped the bull within 40 yards, as good as it gets. The.450/.400-3” is truly perfect for buffalo.

The Heym Model 88B PH is nothing more, nor less, than a plainer versionof Heym’s highly respected—and more expensive—Model 88B Safari dou-ble rifle. There are no mechanical differences, with lack of embellishmentthe major change.

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