Well I took this Merkel drilling and a combination gun out for some shooting and what I found is the drilling with a 2.5" Brenneke slug would not hit a target 18" x 18" at 50 yards. Was shooting over the target. I tried both shotgun barrels with the popup sight and even tried it without the pop up site and never even hit the 18" square box I was using for a target....Hmmm.... I did try a few rounds of 8 x 57jr S&B ammo after removing and putting the scope back on and the 3 shot round I shot was right back on zero and about a 1/4" group. I was very pleased with this as this is the gun I installed my own scope and rings to fit the claw mount bases on last fall (or was it 2 falls ago LOL). I had gotten quite a bit of help from folks on this forum so thank you very much for a successful project regarding the claw mount rings.
But back to the slugs. So, couple of questions about sights and drillings in general. When I am testing the slugs should I be using the scope? Should I be shooting them through the small pop up site? What distance should I be sighting in at? I was trying 50 yards. My hunch is that with a drilling you would normally want the slug to be in the left barrel? Is this the normal use? And I would think normally the scope was not used or installed when shooting shot or slugs through the shotgun barrels? Or would the user try and have the slug regulated to shoot with both the scope installed or not installed and just using the pop up iron sight? How about with the rifle round? Did the user attempt to have the rifle round regulated for both use with a scope and without?
So, all this just really got me to wondering how were drillings used and how were they regulated particularly when scopes became popular? Seems like it would be difficult to have a slug regulated to work with and without the scope? and the same for a rifle round?
The good news is that the combination gun which is a 16 over 8 x 57jr shot great with the scope removed and put back on so excellent return to zero. And the slugs with the scope or without grouped nicely but about 2" low and to the right at 50 yards. At least they were hitting the target LOL.
Thanks in advance for any help or thoughts on this topic.
Ron
