The Krieghoff Quadro, with its free floating rifle barrel and availability to use ESL full length same caliber inserts make it seem like the ultimate drilling.

I would like to hear what it, or the similar Plus, are really like to shoot and hunt with. Both as double barrel shotguns for wing shooting upland game and as rifles for North American big game hunting.

The Quadro looks like something I might really “need†in either 9.3x74R or 8x57IRS or 8x75RS and 20ga 3â€. I think from a performance point of view for all around North American hunting that 8x75RS. But the ammo is all but unavailable.

One of the other two is probably a more practical choice for that reason. 9.3x74R can probably do everything that 8x75RS can except very open country elk and mule deer.

Can anyone tell me the “published†weights of the 20ga Quadro in these 3 calibers?

Brazos Jack

Sorry Jack,

I dont know any Krieghoff Drilling modell called "quadro", what you meant is probably the Optima drilling. There you can use big caliber insert barrels.
The weight of an Optima in 8x57IRS to 9,3x74 will be abaout 3,6 kg to 3,8kg the doublerifle drilling 4 kg.
I for myself use an Optima in 12ga and 8x57IRS with an insert barrel in 5,6x50R and its my every day carry weapon for all puposes over the year, thats what drillings where built for.
For you I would recommend the 9,3x74 with the 250-270gr bullets.

Stephan

Stephan,

You are probably right about the name. I am an American working in the Middle East. So for 10-1/2 months a year I have little access to anything related to sporting arms. The only Krieghoff brochures I have came from Krieghoff International, the U.S. importer in Pennsylvania. They have two models, the Plus and the Quadro. They look the same in the pictures but the Plus is only offered with EL-22, EL-44, or EL-65 inserts, while the Quadro is also offered with the big caliber ESL inserts. So I think they must call the Optima, the Quadro in the U.S.

Is the 8x75R a lot less common than the 9.3x74R, even in Germany?

Does the “Thermo-Stable†(free floating?) rifle barrel hold zero well on repeated shots?

My old pre-war drilling is a blitz action with 3 hammers, so you can fire all three barrels without having to re-cock the gun. Am I right in assuming that a 2 hammer action must be re-cocked in some manner to fire a third shot?

I think I’d like a drilling like this with the big caliber ESL insert as well as a EL-22 insert in .22 WRM.

Do you have yours scoped? If so, what kind of mounts and rings are you using and what scope?

Hello Jack,
the brochure must be rather old, because the Plus isn`t produced any more.
look here

The Krieghoff Thermo Stable barrels are as thermo stable as any single rifle barrel of the same diameter (15,5 mm at my 8x57IRS) same with the insert barrel. My optima is grouping three shots from each barrel within 1 inch at 100m.

As we often have to hunt under poor light conditions I have a Zeiss 2,5-10x52 with a Krieghoff mount, without rings.

I think the 8x75R which had a little "comback" during the last 10 years will soone disapear again from the market non of the big manufakturers is producing it anymore, they had better reactivated the 8x65IRS which was the better caliber. I wouldnt recommend buying one.

You are right concerning the 2 hammer action, you have to re-cock it by opening and closing the Drilling or by pushing the cock back and forwards again. Therefore you have a weapon which can be handcocked which gives you the best safety possible.

Stephan

As I just heard was the Optima indeed sold as Quadro for the first years in the US, but now it is called Optima.

Jack
Definately get the 9,3x74R over either one of the 8mm's

I looked seriously at the Quadro a while back.

I went with the Blaser D 99 Duo instead.

A double rifle drilling is a great hunting gun.