in 1871, known as "The Mousetrap", it was a complex design but it sold in significant numbers. In 1875, Westley Richards employees William Anson and John Deeley patented the "Anson & Deeley" hammerless boxlock action, and in 1878 the Birmingham gunmakers W&C Scott & Son invented the basic sidelock action which was so successful it was immediately adopted by Holland & Holland. By 1900 the boxlock and sidelock hammerless actions had largely superseded the hammer rifles and, with the addition of ejectors and assisted opening, the basic design of the double rifle has changed little to this day. Incidentally, it was Westley Richards who invented the first reliable safety catch for doubles, ejectors, the single selective trigger and the special extractors that enabled rimless cartridges to be used in double rifles, all features found in modern double rifles. In 1898, John Rigby & Company loaded the .450 Black Powder Express with smokeless cordite creating the .450 Nitro Express, the first Nitro Express cartridge, this was to have a profound impact on sporting cartridge development and the double rifle was to become synonymous with the Nitro Express cartridges. Now in its final form and chambering modern Nitro Express cartridges, the British double rifle entered its golden age at the turn of 20th century and it was to last for the next three decades, with the birth of the White hunter and professional hunting safari industry in East Africa. After the Second World War, a combination of increased labour costs and a shrinking British Empire saw an end to the demand for handcrafted sporting rifles and the double rifle was largely supplanted by the bolt action rifle. It was not until the 1980s and the emergence of the big game hunting industry in Southern Africa that production of double rifles resumed at a steady rate, driven largely by demand from American sportsmen. Use For African hunting the Nitro Express double rifle remains extremely popular, although unaffordable for the majority of hunters. In Europe, the double rifle remains reasonably popular in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, and Eastern Europe for hunting wild boar, bear, stag, and moose. Double rifle makers today See also Express (weaponry) Nitro Express References External links Simon Clode, "Regulating a double rifle at Westley Richards", theexplora.com, retrieved 2 May 2017. Multiple-barrel firearms Rifles Hunting rifles