Having a double rifle is an itch I've been wanting to scratch for quite some time now. I don't know much about different manufacturers and was wondering if you guys could steer me straight. I see EAA has one for around $650.

I'd like the caliber to be .45-70 if at all possible.

Those rifles are on indefinent hold up.  They were supposed to be here Sept 03, then Jan 04, then July 04, now they're slated to be here early 05.  I wouldn't hold my breath waiting.

EAA makes 45-70 inserts for their side by side 12ga shotgun. I can't immagine how painful that would be. I have a 18" barrelled Baikal Bounty hunter SXS 12ga that kicks like a mule.

I would like to have a fine double rifle.. Something in a seriously big caliber like 416rigby, 45/500, so on and so on.. A elephant gun in other words.. Why?? Don't know...

Cabelas just opened near me, and they have a sweet 3 bbl gun in the library.. It is a J.P. Sauer 20 gauge SxS, with a 7x57 bbl underneeth.. This gun is just the prettiest peice of steel and wood I have ever seen... $8K price tag hurts though...

Quoted: EAA makes 45-70 inserts for their side by side 12ga shotgun. I can't immagine how painful that would be. I have a 18" barrelled Baikal Bounty hunter SXS 12ga that kicks like a mule.

I have one.

The inserts are actually made in Italy.

20" Bounty Hunter.

It works...sorta.

There are eccentrics on the end of the barrel, you screw those around in the bore which changes the POI of the bullets.  Right now I'm just tinkering with 405grn@1200 PMC cowboy rounds.  I want to load up and eventually regulate it with 300 grn rounds, to get me up to ~1500 fps.  

Right now it shoots the rt barrel 3" high at 50 yds, and the left 3" low at 50 yds.  Consistently too.  3" high @ 50 is about what I want, because I'm not going to be taking any long shots with a crudely iron-sighted SxS.  I hope to get it 3" high with 300 grainers, which would put me dead on at about 100 and I wouldn't shoot it any further away I doubt.  

Kick isn't that bad.  Not rated for hot loads and I dont intend to find out if it will hold them.  I'm sure it will, but I doubt the tubes will

Crazyq,

Is your 20" threaded for chokes? And do the barelles thread in like a choke tube?  I know a guy that's a big 45-70 sharps shooter, he was telling me his sharps was shooting high at 100. He finally got out to a 300yd range and was hitting dead on.

No my barrels have fixed chokes.

These are full length rifled inserts.  They are threaded at the muzzle end, and have a plastic ejector on them.  You insert them from the breech, twist them till the plastic ejector lines up over your metal ejector.  Then at the muzzle end, you have an bore sized, um, plug, with a hole offset bored in it the size of the barrel tube.  By turning this eccentric around, you can move the muzzle end of the tube inside the barrel.  Them you screw on a special nut over the threads to lock the whole thing down.  They stick out about .75" past the muzzle.  

It comes with 2 different size eccentrics, and the previous owner of this setup had his gunsmith make 1 other pair.  

It doesn't work that great, but it does work.  

The one they are supposed to come out with uses a jackscrew for regulation.  Sight in one barrel, twist jack screw to move other barrel close enough.

The next cheapest alternative is the Kodiak Mk whatever .45-70 rifle, which is about $1400 I think.  These can be rechambered to .450 Nitro Express No 2 I think, or maybe it was .450 Nitro Express 3 1/4" or something.  I can check and make sure but anway they can be rechambered.  Also .450 RCBS which is a wildcat (not like you'd be able to find .450 NE #2 at Walmart anyway).  

Next up is a Chapuis at about 4500-5500, although these are overunders and top out at 9.3x74R I think, which is legal for cape buffalo in only one country (Botswana I think, all others require .375 min caliber).