Hi all,
Well the time has come and we've taken delivery of our RBD (Ralf Bettina Dauner) Omni-Break in 500 Nitro Express.
The Omni-Break is a hand-built single shot break action designed and made completely by Ralf Dauner and his wife Bettina. Ralf is a trained gunsmith and does all the metalwork while his wife Bettina does all the woodwork including the checkering by hand. The barrel can be removed just like a shotgun, and other barrels of different calibres can be made to use the same receiver, which is where the name Omni-Break came from.
My brother and I both grew up in Africa and we'd become interested in the 500 Nitro Express as a calibre. This round was designed in the late 1800s specifically for hunting Elephants, Rhinos, and Cape Buffalo. This literally is an elephant gun. We specifically asked for the African-styled checkering and the satin wax finish, as well as the timber type, to closely replicate typical African hunting rifles.
Our 500 Nitro Express has a 26 inch barrel and shoots the 3 inch cartridges. Ralf and Bettina added a little extra weight to this rifle to help with recoil, and it weighs in at 4.1kg / 9lbs. We loaded standard 500NE rounds using Aussie-made Bertram brass and the 570gn Bertram projectile, using 103gn of 2209 powder primed with Federal 215s.
Well we took it out today to shoot. I've got a video with a couple of slow-motions that I have uploaded for those interested.
As you will see, the recoil blew my earmuffs off! This was due to me wearing prescription sunglasses combined with muffs that don't clamp very tightly onto my head, but I wear this same combination shooting a couple of un-braked 308s without any issue at all so the recoil of this rifle is several times greater.
Video of our first shootFor those wondering how much it cost, it's actually very affordable. Prices start at $1950 depending what options you choose, although if you go for a large bore like this, expect ammunition to be a considerable additional expense (
refer to this thread for details). Ralf and Bettina were very attentive to our desires and tailored our rifle specifically to suit what we wanted, and we're pretty damn happy with our new toy.
It only took a few shots to get a sore shoulder and a headache going though!
We've ordered a custom rifle sling through a local leather-maker and it is ready and due to be picked up tomorrow, so hopefully it turned out as well as we had hoped.
Update: sling has arrived, photos in the thread below!
Cheers!