I've always been intrigued by these beautiful weapons, but never met anyone with real knowledge of them. Can you please tell me about them? No specific question, just general history, where they originated, what are they used for, why do some have shotgun barrels with rifle ones, who currently makes best drillings, what's the different methods of uilding them, how do triggers work when you have 3/4 different bores, how are they regulated when they have 2 or 3 different calibers, etc...

Thanks.

The word drilling is derived from the german word drei, three in reference to the amount of barrels of the gun.

A vierling, is as one can suspect a fourbarreled gun.

Drilings can either be a normal drilling, two shotbarrels and one rifled barrel ie a normal drilling or a doppelbüchdrilling with two rifled barrels and one shot barrel.

If you get a modern Blaser drilling you can have one with both barrel sets.

The drillings origin is to me a mystery however the are mostly a german/european thing.

A drilling can be fitted with a smal cal rifled barrel in the one shotbarrel and can be had with a claw or swing mounted scope.

A typical german drilling is a 16/70x2 and 7-8mmx57R with a Ziess 1,5-6x42 in a clawring mount.

Older models of drillings where hammer guns for the shotbarrels.

The typical use of a drilling was for driven boar hunts with slugs/brenneke, a drillings shot barrels are usualy adjusted/regulated to shot poi at 50 meters with slugs,

The rifled barrel was intended to be used at longer range and for deliberate shots at game, mostly from a high stand, horziths hence the crocked stocks on most german drillings.

In germany a lot of the hunting is done at lowlight, hence the 6x42 or 8x56 optics on the drillings.

The rifled barrel on a drilling will most of the time suffer from rising poi when shot hot, vertical stringing, all part of the design, and not an real issue in the field.

Triggers on modern drilling work like this, safety off, shot barrels engaged, two triggers, front for right barrel and back for left barrel,

Safety off and rifled barrel engaged, that is a second control, a small rear sight is raised, a telling sign the rifled barrel is engaged, front trigger is for the rifled barrel, most drillings have a set trigger for the rifled barrel, press trigger forward.

Building good drillings is no different from doubles, one just has more barrels to regulate.

Vierlings are rare, haven´t held one myself and cant speak of the normal controls on them.

The best drillings today is a question of taste, Blaser makes very good working drillings at a price, Hyem, Merkel, Krieghoff all make very good products.

If one is looking for a decent driling but not to fancy a Merkel 30 or 32 with 12/70 shot barrels and a 7x57R or the rarer 6,5/8 mm barrels is plain great stuff.



That is what mine looks like after a restocking was made, today is has a swingmount instead on top in wich a S&B 1.1-4 resides.

/Best regards Chris

This was a perfectly complete answer. Thank you very much

Above stated on my behalf is just an introduction, not any more, there is a lifes worts of learning about drillings and all break action rifles/shoguns.

Best regards Chris

Two barrel muzzle loading combination guns were quite common in Germany. If you look around, you will find plenty of SxS percussion "cape guns", barrels often with similar bore diameter to shoot the same ball, one rifled, one smooth. Around 20 gauge seems rather common.

Here is some more information on Drilling history, taken from a special issue of the German magazine "Wild und Hund" on combination guns Wild & Hund Exklusiv, issue no. 15):

"By mid of the 19th century the first percussion Drillings evolved in southern germany. 1878 the Munich gunmaker Peter Oberhammer filed a patent (no. 2795) for the first breechloading drilling. The gun had a Roux breech, 2 locks, 2 outside hammers and 2 triggers."

In hammer guns, the right hammer (operated by the front trigger) serves the right shotgun barrel and the rifle barrel. A small lever is used to switch from shotgun to rifle (and to raise the rear sight). In hammer guns, this lever often resembles the top lever of a normal hammerless gun, while the breech is opened with some sort of underlever.

The classic hammerless Drilling has 3 locks and 2 triggers, rear trigger for left shotgun barrel, front trigger for right shotgun and rifle. The lever to switch this trigger often looks and operates like a normal safety on the tang. The safety is then a Greener-type safety, on the side. This is potentially confusing and dangerous, there are plenty stories about people firing the wrong barrel!

Modern Drillings have so-called "safety locks* where the rifle lock is cocked/decocked instead of using a safety.

In the old days a drilling was actually a SxS shotgun with an auxiliary rifle barrel: stocked like a shotgun, long barrels (68 - 72 cm), open sights only.
With the use of scopes, changes in game distribution and hunting tactics this has changed: now the barrels are short, the stock is a rifle stock (with the ugly hogback and steep pistol grip). The right shotgun barrel usually has a small-caliber rifle insert (older inserts were short, .22 lr or .22 Mag., now they are full-length for a centerfire cartridge). The left shotgun barrel in practice is not used often. Now this is a gun for the "Hochsitz". Due to a big scope for low light (now typically 2.5-10x with 52 or 56 mm objective!) and the insert barrel it can be quite heavy.

Fuhrmann

Some more things:

the double rifle drilling with 2 rifle barrels on top and a shotgun barrel beneath is intended for large game hunting and the occasional fox or hare. Think double rifle with an auxiliary shotgun barrel. This type has quite a comeback now in Germany, due to plenty of wild boar and drive hunts. Regulation of conventionally soldered barrels is complex. My brother has one, it's called "the mimosa".

With soldered barrels, the change of point of impact with a hot rifle barrel is a fact (same goes for Bockbüchsflinten and cape guns). In the journal mentioned above a test was made:

105 Drillings, rifle caliber .243 Win. or more: median change of POI from 1st to 2nd shot is 14.6 cm
median change of POI from 1st to 3nd shot is 23.0 cm

45 Bockbüchsflinten, rifle caliber .243 Win. or more: median change of POI from 1st to 2nd shot is 14.3 cm
median change of POI from 1st to 3nd shot is 23.0 cm

18 Drillings and Bockbüchsflinten, rifle caliber from .22 Hornet to 5.6x50R Mag.: median change of POI from 1st to 2nd shot is 9.0 cm
median change of POI from 1st to 3nd shot is 14.3 cm

Practically all modern combination guns have free rifle barrels to avoid that. Also you can adjust regulation. But these things can be finicky and change regulation on their own.

Also note that change of POI is much more of a problem when using a scope.

Fuhrmann

That is what mine looks like after a restocking was made, today is has a swingmount instead on top in wich a S&B 1.1-4 resides.

/Best regards Chris[/QUOTE]

Hey Chris!

Nice looking job. Didn't know you were into your combi guns. I have been hunting with a BBF for the last couple years - and little Jo liked it so much.....she picked up one for herself only this afternoon!

SO - the offer stands, come one over, bring the combi and we will have a bit of a hunt. Roe are always open, Reds, Fallow etc come back in season from August.

Keep well,

Ian

Hi there Ian, well that is Swedish hunting for you, duck, roe, wildboar, moose, fox and hare are all in season at the same time,

Going out one has to be prepared or chanses will pass one buy.

A BBF for Jo, that seems like the perfect gun for here, what configuration/cal/brand did she get?

About that offer, I am more than keen of taking you up on it, after all I have a valid permit, a TFP but just for the Sako, I am currenlty waiting for my tax return, perhaps there is something there to be had.

Any ways, good to hear from you, say Hi to Jo for me/Best regards Chris

I'm relatively new to this forum, but thought you might be interested in some things I've picked up from some guns my Dad brought back from Germany after WWII. A number of drilling and combination guns found in Germany were actually made in Belgium, or at least partially, with gunsmiths doing the final customizing.

Before attempting to shoot ANY of these guns, be sure for what shells and cartridges the guns are chambered. Just because the shotgun barrels are marked as 16 gage does NOT mean it is safe to shoot modern shells, even light-weight loads! Many of these guns, especially the outside hammer ones, are chambered for short European shotshells. While the proof marks usually found on the underside of the barrels MAY give you a good indication, it is best to check the length of the chambers.

Belgian proof marks for shotgun barrels are usually marked with the gage with either NO length (in which case the chambers are 65mm long, or 2-1/2 to 2-9/16" long, or may have the "65". If "70", then they are 2-3/4" chambers. BUT BEWARE! Guns marked with the 70 mm or in English 2-3/4", MAY in fact have chambers that are slightly SHORT for use with modern, plastic shotshells! (Even "C" model Winchester M97 shotguns are found that, although supposedly for 2-3/4" shells, are slightly short for modern plastic 2-3/4" shells!)

When it comes to the rifle barrels, caution is also in order! Many people assume that a barrel marked "8.6x72R" is a 9.3x72R. (The diameter usually refers to the BORE size prior to rifling, on these guns.) Now a 9.3x72R usually has a bullet diameter of .366". But that 8.6x72R does NOT have a groove diameter of .366", at least not on my drilling! Fortunately, I slugged the barrel before attempting to stuff the 9.3x72R cartridge in there! Turns out the actually groove diamter on this gun is actually .358", or 9.0mm! With the thin amount of metal on this gun, shooting the 9.3x72R would have resulted in a disaster!

Other guns can have some odd-ball, "wildcat" chambering. A side-by-side rifle/shotgun (a "buscheflint") I inherited has the left barrel in 16x65" shotgun, and the right barrel some proprietary cartridge based on the Mauser "A"-head case, but shortened to 47mm and bottlenecked into a cartridge somewhat larger than a .44-40, but with a bullet diameter of .446"! There isn't enough "meat" on the barrel to risk lengthening the chamber to take a .43 Mauser round, a set of form/trim dies and a set of size/expand/seat&crimp dies was obtained from RCBS. Needless to say, since this gun isn't Nitro proofed, it should be shot only with black powder, BP substitutes or VERY JUDIOUSLY worked up smokeless loads.

One way around the shotshell chambering problem is to order BP 2-1/2" shell, or, as an alternative to find some reduced gage inserts. When Savage made their Four-Tenner inserts, this was a fairly simple solution.

Hope this is of some interest!

quote:

Originally posted by Husqvarna M98:
Hi there Ian, well that is Swedish hunting for you, duck, roe, wildboar, moose, fox and hare are all in season at the same time

Sounds a bit like here in OZ. Everything on the go at once, year round...

To see all possible combos,

http://www.ferlachguns.com/

Click on "weapons" on the Hambrusch page

Burkhard

quote:

The typical use of a drilling was for driven boar hunts with slugs/brenneke, a drillings shot barrels are usualy adjusted/regulated to shot poi at 50 meters with slugs,

When I was in Germany, the drilling was a favorite piece for use in drive hunts, as stated above. BUT, they were used in hunting a variety of game, not just boars! The hunters would completely surround a piece of terrain in which it was believed that a number of various game animals & birds as well were residing. The hunters would all walk towards the center of the circle, and when game sought to escape the converging group of hunters, the closest hunter would turn around and shoot at the critter AWAY from the circle of other hunters. The drilling (and other types of combination guns such as rifle under shot barrel, vierlings, etc.) provided the hunter with the option of shot for birds & smaller animals such as fox, etc., and rifle bullets for boar and other larger animals, even Hirsch & various types of deer......

This is very informative.
Someone should sticky it.