Sporting Classics is pleased to present this opportunity to purchase a pair of Ernest Dumolin left-hand double rifles in .375 H&H Magnum and .470 Nitro Express with consecutive serial numbers. The top levers open to the left, and the cheekpieces are on the right side of the butts.
Common features include: hooded ramp front sights with flip-up night beads, windage-adjustable quarter-rib express rear sights with one fixed and three folding leaves (engraved 50/100/150/200), manual safeties, articulated front triggers, bushed strikers, hand-detachable sidelocks, jeweled water tables, extended upper and lower tangs, trapdoor grip caps, beavertail forends, and 26 lines-per-inch checkering. Barrels are rust blue, and actions are finished in an accented coin. Triggers, forend releases, and some pins are niter blue.
As these rifles were imported by Midwest Gun Sport of Ellisville, Missouri, it is nearly certain both were finished in the 1980s; engraver J. Vielvoye’s signature shows under the trigger guards. Each has the original owner’s name in gold on the quarter rib and the initial “S” in a gold oval on the toe line.
Serial number 11279 is a .375 H&H Magnum. Weight is 10.8 pounds, barrels are 26¼ inches long and length of pull is 14½ inches. Drops are 1¼ and 2¼ inches. Cast on is approximately ½-inch. Full-coverage game-scene engraving surrounded by bouquet and scroll features a group of four Cape buffalo bulls on the savannah (right lock), a glaring, solid-bossed bull standing in the jesse (left lock), and a gold bust of a heavy-horned bull (bottom). The pattern continues along the top lever, over the guard, and down both extended tangs. It then reappears on the front and rear sight ramps, forend furniture, and grip cap.
Additional gold accents include a heavy wire collar at the barrel bases, sighting lines on the leaves, an “S” just ahead of the tang safety, and gold-plated strikers, internals, and some pins. Stocked in heavily marbled Turkish walnut, it remains in virtually new condition save modest evidence of careful handling.
Serial number 11280 is in the hallowed .470 Nitro Express. Weight is 10.8 pounds, barrels are 25.7 inches long, and length of pull is 14½ inches. Drops are 1.0 and 1.9 inches. Cast on is approximately ½-inch. Full-coverage game-scene engraving surrounded by bouquet and scroll features two alerted elephant bulls (right lock), an elephant herd led by a huge bull (left lock), and a charging bull in gold (bottom). The balance of engraving as well as its condition matches that of the other rifle.
The buttstock of this rifle features particularly heavy marbling. Each trapdoor grip cap houses an extra set of gold-plated strikers and an extra front sight blade. Both of these blades have surface rust from being wrapped in paper.
The pair sells for $70,000 plus shipping. For more information, visit sportsmanslegacy.com or call (406) 212-0344.