When you find an older Drilling or com- bination gun, quite often the rifle barrel is chambered for what we would regard as a medium bore cartridge. If loaded with solid bullets or even a somewhat reduced load with a very hard cast bullet, such rounds will not do any more damage to a valuable pelt than will virtually any 22 or 6mm caliber centerfire round. Two cautions pertaining to these
older guns: Unless the gun is specifically marked with its chambering(s), please have a competent gunsmith make chamber casts of all barrels and slug the bores as well before you fire any shots. Second, pre-World War I guns are quite often either designed for black powder cartridges or have Damascus or other twist steel barrels. While such guns can be used, loading for these oldies or buy- ing the correct ammunition is not a job for the casual shooter or reloader. Unless you have many years of reloading experi- ence with these old rounds, do not try it. Buy a newer gun. One further word on the older com-
bination guns: Although many were out- fitted with scopes, it is very rare to find one with the original gun, and when you do find such a scope, don’t be surprised if it is not at all as good as you’re used to. After all, they usually are more than 50 years old. However, the simple truth is that for most eastern predator hunting, while a scope is often handy, equally often it is not only unnecessary, but ac- tually can be a handicap. I far prefer to leave the scope at home and instead put a good binocular in my pack or pocket. I truly enjoy hunting with one of
my old break-open combination guns. Even when the hunting action is slow or non-existent, there is a lot to be said about simply looking at these guns and admir- ing them, and when the hunting action is fast, you are instantly prepared for any conceivable shot you might get. Then, too, any game warden who stops you to check equipment and licenses usually will become so interested in your “odd- ball” gun that he is more likely than not to overlook a minor technical violation! ADDENDUM
As you probably can see from
the included photos, my old Drilling is anything but a thing of beauty – even though at one time it might have been. This gun is literally an example of what is often thought of as an urban myth because a remodeler came across the
SIII Riflescopes
The SIII Long Range MOA series offers the shooter Ranging Capabilities along with Ballistic Holdover and measurement. Ballistic Holdover is another feature that allows the shooter to match their ballistics to the reticle chart that is provided. With doing this ballistic match up, the shooter can quickly range and then match up his DROP chart with the sub-tensioning chart provid- ed to make quick and easy holdover for various distance shooting. Matte Finish. Side Focus.
30mm Main Tube Item No. Price 1-7x24mm Illum SI25002 $799.99 3.5-10x44 Illum SI25124 $1,053.59 6-24x50mm 8-32x56mm 10-50x60mm
SI25127 $915.99 SI25149 $951.99 SI25003 $1,086.99
10-50x60mm Illum SI25146 $1,315.99
OVER 20,000 PRODUCTS
To meet your shooting needs
• reloading tools & components • • powder • ammo • optics & more •
Sightron MOA-2
MOA-2 Reticle
Graf & Sons, Inc.
800-531-2666
www.grafs.com
gun hidden within a wall of a house he was working on. This time, however, the stud against which the Krieghoff Drill- ing rested for perhaps 40 or so years also had a water pipe running through it and the water dripped on the outside of the gun for all that time. The good news is two-fold, however: First and foremost, no water was able to ruin the bores; they are practically new. Second, the gun is very plain, so there is no rusted engraving to cause me to cry uncontrol- lably. It took me a full three months of soaking the gun in solvent to be able to open it and a gunsmith took another six months to replace the broken top spring, weld the broken top tang and replace the mainspring. No doubt all of these items were broken by a previous owner who determined that the way to break open the gun was to give it to a gorilla. Then another six months was devoted to repairing the cracked stock, refinishing it and for the repeated oil baths to stop the rusting action. However, now I have a perfectly usable short-barreled handy three-barrel predator gun. And one that nobody would steal!
CONTACTS
Johann Fanzoj
www.fanzoj.com
Heym USA www.heymusa
The rifle cartridges mentioned, from left: 22 Savage High Power (5.6x52R), 8x57R with reduced cast bullet loaded for not ruining pelts and 8x57R with full-power load for larger predators.
www.varminthunter.org Page 95
One flat fee of $8.95
($6.95 online) gets the order to your door!
Huntington Die Specialties
www.huntington’
s.com
Krieghoff International, Inc.
www.krieghoff.com
Merkel USA
www.merkel-usa.com
Quality Cartridge
www.qual-cart.com
RST Classic Shotshell Co., Inc.
www.rstshells.com
Savage Arms, Inc.
www.savagearms.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196