Combination guns. Would you? Why/Why not?

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Pond James Pond

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A tough one to choose a sub-forum for.

Just idle curiosity on my part. I'm going through a GKA (Gun Knowledge Acquisition) phase around all things shotgun at the moment and I am particularly interested in their potential in hunting.

Idly browsing online shops I saw some combination guns and I thought about them, wondering where their strengths lie as they are not cheap. To be clear, I am neither for nor against, just intrigued.

On the one hand, yes, you can have a 12g and a .308 in the same package, but then you have the disadvantages of a single shot in each without the advantage of low weight.

Beyond that it seems it might be handy if you don't know what to expect: perhaps wildfowl, perhaps large game.

So, what am I missing in their appeal?
 
You're missing the reason of why they make combination guns. In the US you go hunting for a specific species, duck, deer, vermin whatever you fancy. In the German speaking areas you typically have the hunting rights to an area, and you hunt whatever you see that day (within your seasonal limits). So a pheasant popping up while you're stalking a deer is just dinner that asked for it if you're carrying a drilling. It's not that the combination guns are better than a dedicated rifle or shotgun, they're just handy when you're looking for anything.
 
First, remember that James Pond is not in the U.S., so the hunting rules and seasons common here, which generally restrict combination guns, may not apply.

Mapsjanhere pretty well lays out the advantages of combination guns where they can be used legally. But certainly, a drilling is as heavy as a repeating center fire rifle and heavier and usually more awkward than a double barrel shotgun.

Jim
 
^^^^

What he said. I do have one combo gun. Its one of the russian guns imported by Remington a few years ago. Its a 22lr over a 410. I bought it on a whim. I would like to have one of the 410/22 army/airforce survival rifles but they are silly expensive.

This Baikal combo gun has a nice wood stock that even has castoff to the butt stock. It comes with 4 choke tubes. I bought this to be a survival type of gun. Plus its just really neat and fun to shoot. It started me buying 410 shotguns. This round is better than internet posters would have you think. It does have limits but a lot of pluses. I like it.
 
mapsjanhere

Maybe you had better take a re look at your local hunting regs. A drilling would work fine for someone that liked grouse but also hunted deer and or elk even in Washington state. And if you had a small plane I am sure you would want one on the plane.
 
I am a fan of savage 24's. When I was a kid I won one in a cheese and sausage FFA sale (my Grandmother had to pick it up at school for me).

It became one of my favorite guns to carry around the farm. The .22 was used most but many times the 20 ga as a second shot was worth more than having 9 (or more) .22 rounds on dispatching critters that if not dead would, more often than not, be moving at great speed.
 
hartcreek,

while I can hunt small game while I'm trying to fill my deer tag I have only 5 days to get a deer, what kind of focuses one's mind wonderfully on a single task. German hunting season is 6 months or longer, so you a single missed shot because you didn't carry the ideal gun doesn't hurt too much.
 
I had a drilling once, 16x16x8mmJR. It was a nice gun but I didn't keep it long. Didn't really serve a useful propose for me. I was always specifically hunting birds or specifically hunting deer.
 
mapsjanhere

I hunt with bow, muzzle loader and modern rifles.......one shot one kill is my motto. A drilling would let me bring in more grouse. The best drilling for me would be percussion cap with .50 cal and 12 or 16 gage.
 
So it seems I had judged more or less correctly in that the appeal is the fact that one might not know exactly which game might crop up and so more targets become available due to the wider choice in ammunition....
 
The main appeal is being able to have one gun in your hands, capable of doing a competent job taking any game you might run across. One package with both a rifle and a shotgun, instant choice of which to use.

Most aimed at survival/camp utility niche, higher end models for European hunting as earlier described.

As a youth, one of my friends had a Savage 24 the .22lR over 20gauge. Neat gun, decently accurate with the .22, considering a rather heavy trigger and coarse sights.
 
Had a Savage. 22-410 given to me when I was a teenager. Awfully disappointing shooter. Savage combo rifle having a cheesy plastic stock.
One evening after checking my snares I found its stock had split/cracked its entire length (pistol grip to butt pad) due to different air temps between MN cold into a warm wood-stove heated kitchen.
Thinking to replace with a 30-30-20 ga. until I found it was illegal to have a rifle caliber larger than a 22 lr afield 10 days before deer seasons opening. After being told that. _ I just never got around to getting another. Can't say I ever missed having >that< Savage Model 24.
 
I have an old 22-410 and a model 24V 222/20. The 22-410 is older than dirt, It was my moms, she shot skeet with it at a club before I was born. It makes a great squirrel gun. One shot of each is enough. I have shot a lit of game with this combination. Next once I was married, I left articles and adds for a model 24V around the house and finally she bought me one for christmass. It must have been around 1985. I was expecting it, so I set an apple in a tree crotch out back. The first shot I fired from that rifle took the apple out. I prefer small game, so this is a great firearm. Durring Deer season, I did all the driving. I am not one to sit still ever, so it works for me and them. I would shoot partridge as I went through the woods pushing deer out. I have shot many chucks, rabbits, squirrels and mostly partridge with that model 24. I tried a scope for chucks, but finally setteled on a reciever sight for the best of both worlds. I usually shoot reduced loads of 8 grains unique under a 45 grain bullet or inthe old days it was a cast lead bullet with a gas check. Either one goes about 1800 fps. I did shoot one deer with a full power psp 222. The deer was quartering away from me runing along a hedgerow. I fired one shot, 135 yards, on a dead run. It ran 50 more yards and folded up skidding to a stop leaving a small streak of blood from the teeny exit wound. It took out both its lungs.

The model 24V is not a pretty gun, the stock started looking sad, so I stripped the finish off and found the wood grain was painted on. I used cherry stain, so now it looks odd.

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This fits me to a T. I shot many partridge before the gun was to my shoulder.
I won a couple slug shoots too.

Where I live now, its illegal to carry a center rifle afield during deer season, so I use the 22-410.


"Beware the man with one gun"

David
 
Anyone have a Tikka O/U combo gun? I recall some have multiple barrel combos such as 12/12, 12/30-06, 30-06/30-06. I believe the regulation was modifiable for the rifle for different loads.

I drooled over a Luftwaffe drilling once, 12x12x9.3x74R. A high end survival gun for pilots supporting the Afrika Korps. Hermann Göring took care of his boys in that department.
 
hartcreek, I don't think I've ever seen a drilling with three hammers, cartridge or percussion cap. They might be an invention of the firing pin era.
PS. Found some cap drilling based on rotating barrels using a single hammer lock. A German side claims the first breech loading drillings around 1878, found one needle-lock based one from 1875.
 
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My first two years in Alaska I lived in a little cabin in Lignite (north of McKinley Park. Worked for the RR in the summer, and just existed in the winter. There isn't any winter work there.

Anyway, I had several guns but fed my family (wife and two toddlers) with my Savage 24D O/U 22-410. Snow shoes and ptarmigan. Plus carried it on a trap line.

Don't shoot it much anymore, but it served me well. I'll never let it go though I really doubt I'll have to depend on it to eat any more.

But if something weird happened and I could on have one gun to keep me fed, it would be that one.
 
Here is a site with 249 listings of drillings and combination guns for sale. As you look through, you will see that the better made guns, even with three barrels, are not that much heavier than either a shotgun or rifle alone:

http://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...fles/drilling-combination-guns.cfm?cat_id=290

The better makers are typically from Austria and Germany. These are handy, not only for the reason above (multiple game), but also, because in some areas, they limit you to the number of guns you can own.
 
They are very good guns for a young boy to have,,,

They are very good guns for a young boy to have,,,
At least they were back in the 50/60's.

My Pop bought a Savage 22/410 for me,,,
Being the whiney brat I was back then I didn't appreciate it.

But Pop also made me an interactive target for it,,,
He took part of a broken bow for a spring,,,
Then made a catch from a metal disc.

Hit the disc with the .22 and it threw a clay pigeon straight up,,,
If you were quick on the barrel selector switch,,,
You could hit the clay on it's way down.

I never appreciated the gun though,,,
What I wanted was a semi-auto like all of my friends had.

I went to my closet one day to get the rifle out and it was gone,,,
Mom said that Pop was angry with me for not liking it,,,
So he sold it to a drinking buddy of his. :eek:

I was mad then but I later realized he was justified,,,
My whining was pretty constant and very vocal. :o

But again it was a great gun for a kid,,,
Walk the fields and if you scared up a rabbit the shotgun was there.

If you spotted one sitting still,,,
Pop it with the rifle.

I would love to have that old rifle back again,,,
But working vintage guns of that ilk are a bit pricey.

Aarond

.
 
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