It exists:
http://www.arsenalfirearms.com/products/af-2011-a1-double-barrel-pistol
You didn’t see my post #18?
A duplex bullet load is a far simpler way to achieve two bullets with every squeeze of the trigger in an SA pistol.
I saw that on the gearbox forums a few days ago.
I’ll see your triple and raise you a four!
From that video, it looks to me like that dual 1911 has a bit of a recoil problem.
Looks like a fun toy, but it doesn’t seem very practical to me.
Plenty of double rifles were made for the purpose of hunting dangerous animals.
The “sporting” explanation has holes as well:
Double barreled shotguns originated not only to give a second chance in case of a miss, but also because game birds are frequently found in flocks or pairs. Historically “sporting Englishmen” would have a pair of guns, and a loader to hand him the second one, so frequently four shots were on tap. Also, these guns historically had manually cocked hammers, so the shots were not so “clean” as you suggest. Cocking both hammers prior to shooting was to risk touching off both barrels at once, risking a bruised shoulder, and possibly even a broken stock. Modern doubles of course cock the action either on opening or closing of the action, and rely on mechanical interlocks to prevent simultaneous discharge.
The point of the double was that it originated when guns were still muzzle loading, so loading was a long, slow process, and multiple barrels was the only practical way to have more than one shot. Recoil of a 12 gauge is enough that the weight of a second barrel gives a useful increase in comfort over a day of shooting. More than that and the gun becomes heavy and unwieldy, but beyond that, It is difficult enough to make two barrels shoot to the same point of impact (a process known as “regulating”) three or more would is very difficult indeed. By the time shot shells came on the scene, doubles were a well established tradition, but also shot shells are blunt on the nose, and are is somewhat more difficult than pointy rifle cartridges to make them feed from a magazine without jamming, so double-barreled shotguns historically held a reliability advantage…less so today with the well refined designs.
For a given barrel length, doubles are much shorter than most repeaters, and for some types of shooting, the quicker handling is an advantage. Also as shells are used from a repeater, the weight and balance of the gun shift to some extent. Wingshooting is tricky enough that this will make a difference to some, or at least give them something to blame their misses on. The double, with only the difference of one shot and powder charge changing, and that pretty much midway between the hands has almost no change in handling between it’s two shots. I will note that with practice, a decent shot can do well with most any gun…but their are those who will spend for claimed advantages, so there is a market to be filled.
Finally, for migratory birds in North America, international treaties limit gun capacity to 3 shots, so repeaters only offer one more shot. Many states enforce similar limits for other game birds. Many shooters like the look, feel, and handling of doubles, so they remain popular even though quality ones are significantly more expensive than typical repeaters because of the required hand fitting of the action and regulating the barrels. Doubles are often lighter than repeaters, and when you are carrying the gun in the field all day this is welcome. A shotgun slung over the shoulder could seldom be deployed quick enough to be useful in many kinds of hunting, so that weight is in your hands all day.
I’m still a bit iffy on the safety issue as well. It seems to me they are just using the “cross fingers and hope” method of ensuring nothing goes wrong. In a normal firearm, if you have a really short ignition delay, you might not even notice it. A longer hangfire also happens on occasion. With a gun that fires two cartridges at the same time, in a semi-auto format, the action is going to start moving when the first cartridge fires. If there is any delay in one, bad things will happen. There is a reason most ammo boxes have a hangfire warning, that if a round doesn’t immediately fire, wait 30 seconds. A half-second hangfire of one round would mean it would likely explode mid-air in front of your face, as the firing of the first round extracts both the fired case and unfired hangfire round.
One thing I didn’t think of before is also, what if someone uses mixed ammo? Likely another source for possible malfunction. Different brands and loadings of bullet and powder side by side would again raise some issues in cycling or ignition timing.
This is the type of out-of-the-box thinking we need. We could even put three barrels at 120 degrees from each other. You want two bullets headed in the same direction? Make it six barrels. Make it two small ones going forward and one big one going backward.
I can think of one legit reason.
In an actual police gun fight things can go to hell quickly. Between yourself moving around, ducking, getting behind cover, and the guy trying to kill you doing the same thing, you might only hit your target once, regardless of how many shots you fire. If that one hit is actually 2 bullets hitting there is double the chance of stopping the threat. Especially if that one hit is not in the most ideal location (like the abdomen instead of the chest or head).
Plus, it seems to me that shooting a double barrel weapon, even with the advanced recoil, would be more accurate than, say, shooting 2 guns (one in each hand).
but you just won’t be able to aim and wield that thing well, double trigger pull will mess up your aim. one hit is better than two misses, quick trigger pulls of semi auto mean it really doesn’t make much of a difference anyways. the only way it would work is if it shot a burst out of one barrel like the m16?