Hemingway’s .577 Nitro Rifle Being Auctioned
James D. Julia is auctioning off Ernest Hemingway's Westley Richards Droplock .577 Nitro Express double rifle. It is the gun he used on his 1953 African safari. According to Phil Bourjaily, this gun, which took a lion and a rhino, is expected to sell for between $150,000 - $200,000.
Even at $150,000, I think I better let some other gun nut have this one 
In my list of Adventurers-Whose-Guns-I-Would-Love-Own. Mr Hemingway ranks number three. Sir Samuel Baker is my #1 followed by Roosevelt.
I know that this is an old post, but I thought that I should provide the finals sale price.
This rifle sold for $339,250.00.
i’ll always remember the first time i read the nick adams stories i was struck by how minimalist it was. ironically the .577 nitro is anything but minimalist lol.
Oh well…looks like I’ll have to get promoted a few more times before a double happens. Thanks anyway though.
@charles222
Double rifles, despite their apparent simplicity, are notoriously expensive to build. google “barrel regulation” to see what I am talking about.
The cheapest option as far as new guns go is a double rifle in .45/70 from Pedersoli, which seems to run anywhere from $3k to $4k depending on where you look. The Pedersoli’s barrels are not regulated, so as far as POI goes YMMV.
ok this thing is ridiculously priced but considering that high quality doubles often sell in this price range i would have thought one with it’s historical value would be expected to sell for even more. still thats a crazy price. just think of all the standard production guns you could get for 150k!
Greetings from Texas,
I never really thought about a list of adventures whoes firearms I would like to have. The first that comes to mind would be Sir Richard Burton – the first one. After that Frank Buck. Perhaps a bow used by Art Young or Saxon Pope.
It’d be cool if some company made relatively inexpensive replicas of these-I kinda want to own a double rifle for some reason.