This is another inquisitive question from someone who will never be able to own a big drilling or vierling. However, I have seen some beautiful drillings and vierlings made for calibers like 470 nitro/470 nitro/470 nitro/8x75 etc in the Johann Fanzoj and other catalogs. Harald Wolf also writes about a 577nitro/577nitro/16 gauge that he made and used.

I have seen a number of big bore doubles in India - we were a British colony and many of the best British guns used to be available here until their ownership was banned and companies like Westley Richards etc bought up what was available here and took it back to Britain for sale to collectors. No Indian maharaja/noble ever owned a large bore drilling/vierling to my knowledge and hence this question.

Are these guns easy to handle? I'd presume they are extremely heavy. Secondly, what would their reliability be like compared to big doubles?

Any info from the experts would be a learning experience for me. Thanks in advance.

And Good Shooting!

Mehul,

Hatari Times #13 has a lengthy article "The Three-Barelled Gun in Africa" (pp16-24). You will want to get this article if you don't subscribe.

jim dodd

Mehul, I did not own this drilling but I have tried my best to buy it for about twenty years, now.

It was a side by side, side lock, 450NE 3.25" double rifle, with a 16 ga tube under the rifle barrels in the normal possition. The thing opperated the same as any double rifle, with the front trigger operateing the right barrel, the back trigger operateing the left barrel. A selector switch on the left side lock armed the back trigger to shoot the shot barrel. It weighed around 11 lbs, and was as well ballanced as a fine waterfowl gun!

This rifle would be a fine lion rifle, for a tracking hunt, as well as follow up if wounded!

Thanks Hunter Jim and MacD37,

Yes, I did read Harald Wolf's article and I have since collected more information on big bore drillings. I have wondered, though, about the reliability factor since these guns must neccessarily be more complex than their two barreled brothers. However, if the Ferlach gunsmiths and Wolf make them, they MUST be excellent!

mehulkamdar

Th ones I have seen has been with one rifle barrel and one shotgun barrel.

I have seen a Merkel drilling in 450 rigby and 16 ga. I could easily find room in my gunvault for one of thoose

I guess they are easiest for find in central Europe. How is the gun owning and hunting in India ?
Cheer
/ JOHAN

Johan,

In my country we are allowed to own only 3 guns - 1 rifle of caliber below 8mm, one shotgun in any guage and type, one handgun of caliber less than .32, so, as you know, collecting is impossible. Hunting is also banned but we are allowed to hunt wild boar, rabbits and foxes as vermin on private land if we own a crop protection permit. A lawsuti challenging the ban on gun ownership was filed in 1984 (when the ban was announced) by the former Chief Minister of the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Gobind Narain Singh against the Central (Federal) government but no verdict has still been announced.

The Guiness Book of World Records says that the longest lawsuit ever fought was in India for a period of 700 years. It looks like this one is set to exceed that limit!

Yes, I have a lot of literature on big bore drillings - some years ago when I did a piece on the best guns available in the world, Hannes Fanzoj of Johann Fanzoj became a "penpal" and we have been in touch every now and then. His company keeps sending me their catalogues but I was interested in finding out whether anyone had experience with these guns in the field.

mehulkamdar

Not a very funny country to be a "gun nut" in Soo , hunting is only allowed as vermin shooting

An old gentlemen who is a friend of my family worked in India before the WW:2 and the has showed some really nice pictures from the hunting he did in India. Hunting used to be very spectacular in India.

I hope you don't mind that I'm writing this, but I really can't understand what a rifle nut like you are doing there

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Isn't is a 'cape gun' when has 1 shotgun barrel and 1 rifle barrel?

Johan,

Yes, hunting was allowed until the late 1970s in my country where we also had strict principles of conservation as laid down by the British. It was with the openly pro-USSR Emergency in 1977 that it was officially banned and the same Indira Gandhi government that banned hunting brought in our restrictive gun laws in 1984 before she was assassinated.

I have hunted and shot the magnificent guns available in those days and now can only see the latest in guns when I go abroad and read about them on the net or in magazines.

What is a gun nut like me doing in India? This is my country and that of my ancestors. My family contributed considerably in achieving independence from the British and we have had roots here for centuries. Ours is one of India's oldest documented family trees and one of my relatives who moved to the US has even put a part of it on the internet.

Yes, my country is becoming an increasingly difficult place for ANYONE, not just a gun nut to live in, but what can I do? It IS my country! Wish it would change for the better!

Mehulkamdar:

India seems to be a lot like Mexico regarding gun laws and similar. The most foolish politicos always seem to get the upperhand in the our countries...

With our latest laws, the Mexican Army, which is the institution responsible for issuing gun permits in Mexico, is confused whether to catalog drillings as shotguns or as rifles... They are now splitting bores so to say...

To answer your question a bit, I have used drillings for hunting in Mexico�s jungles. I have used the double shotgun barrel + one rifle barrel variety, in 12 ga. plus 30-30 or 30-06. Both were fine, well balanced Sauers. These were loaned to me by friends; I have always lusted for a fine German drilling in 16 ga. x 7*64R or similar, but they cost, when you can find them, 4000 USD and upwards...

These drillings are very useful in the jungle, where you never know what animal you are going to run into. The shooting distances are typically 10 to 15 meters, maximally 40 meters, so the crude open sights for the rifle barrel are more than OK.

Even if it is more likely that you will use the shotgun barrels, particularly against the many venomenous snakes, having a rifle barrel when shooting a whitetail, brocket deer or peccari at a longish distance is a welcome alternative. I always load one shotgun barrel with buckshot and the other one with birdshot for the crawlies...

In the old days (70�s...) when jaguar hunting was allowed, these were the favorite weapons to hunt them.

Antonio

Antonio,
What are the gun laws like in Mexico? Are you restricted to the number of weapons you can own? How about handguns, are they allowed? The one thing I find most fascinating about this forum is the opportunity to learn from people in other countries.

I have seen rifle in rifle magazine, three .577Nitro express barrels over/under and two 10 gauges side by side around middle rifle barrel

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mehulkamdar:
[QB]Johan,
What is a gun nut like me doing in India? This is my country and that of my ancestors. My family contributed considerably in achieving independence from the British and we have had roots here for centuries. Ours is one of India's oldest documented family trees and one of my relatives who moved to the US has even put a part of it on the internet.

It takes a great person to stay and fight for what they believe in!! Keep after your Government Officials! Write letters, go talk to them etc! One person can make a DIFFERENCE

Antonio,

Thanks for the news from Mexico and for breathing life into this old thread. We have quite some jungle left in my country but we'll never know how effective drillings could be here because hunting is almost totally banned except for crop protection.

Tsturm,

Thanks for the kind words. There is a real fight as far as regaining our gun rights is concerned and the Indian Supreme Court recently threw out caliber restrictions. Additional suits challenging the laws limiting the ownership of guns to three per person are also being challenged in court and I hope that the learned judges will throw these out as well. Let us hope for the best!

One sign of changing times here is that Westley Richards has started buying big bore rifles once again and Walter Clode, their Chairman, has been putting advertisements in the newspapers asking for double rifles once more. Though they behaved like boors when I asked them for information for an article that I wrote some years ago, I wish the characters luck. Those grand old guns need to be saved.

Good shooting!