doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com >>Drei It Out<<Interesting Summary of the Drilling

Carcano's description of hunting in Germany today is correct. Listening to hunting stories told by my grandfathers, plus approaching 70 myself now, I have an overview of the last 100 years of hunting history.
Small game hunting and shotgunning is gone for good. There may still be regional "islands" with decent small game hunting somewhere, but they are exceptions, not the rule.
If I want to use my shotguns I need to go crow shooting.

The main game now is wild boar. No need for a shotgun barrel anymore.
In the last couple of years night vision devices and silencers or moderators became legal and were soon in quite universal use. No chance to mount these things to a Drilling.
Older hunters still have and use a Bockbüchsflinte or a Drilling, but what you mainly see are bolt action rifles with plastic stocks, often with the German over-engineered straight-pull actions, and often adorned with a silencer.

However: looking back the past 60 years I knew plenty of German hunters who did not like Drillings. These were certainly neither rich nor noblemen, and I grew up among them. So:
the Drilling is not the universal solution for most hunting situations, but a specialised and expensive tool that is suboptimal in most hunting situations.
Plus the loaded rifle barrel can be simply dangerous.
In the form of Doppelbüchsdrilling, Bergstutzen etc (with 2 or more rifle barrels) it is a potential nightmare regarding sighting-in and barrel regulation.

Up to now I have managed very well without a Drilling, thank you, and will never carry one.
fuhrmann

Thank you. You answered my questions, and, although the answers are a bit sad, it is the truth.

Best,
Ted

From my longtime experience as a Waldläufer,( Elf, Nomad, Surveyor), in the Jungles of the America's from Alaska to the tip of Argentina as well as the Afrika, a kombination gun is an essential tool and possibly a Schienendrilling or Waldläufer. I have spent the whole of my life in the Bush since I could walk. But what I see is that the use of a Kombo or Drilling requires education and familiarity. Ignorance of the Platform is where the issue arises. Looking @ how Safeties evolved or were made and just the basic design of German / Austrian weapons points to the seriousness of the knowledge of each platform. And most folks want to live in a >>Push-Button<< world and not traverse thru the learning curve. One can try to carry a weapon for every occasion, but that is just not possible as I have tried it. So a Kombo fits the bill. Safety features were added in an attempt to prevent you from doing something stupid with full knowledge of the platform, not to eliminate general stupidity. Even with the Kombos I have found that if you set the >>Set Trigger<< with the safety on & then pull firmly on the appropriate trigger, the lock will still fire when the safety is switched off..... I too have seen this on semi-auto shotguns that were frozen after being rained upon during a waterfowl hunt. Anything that can happen will & one must mitigate it with specific protocol.


Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

My friend Walter Grass (sadly, we lost him in2011) said it is better to carry a gun with the safety off, but the trigger unset than with the safety on and the trigger set. Raimey is right, you must have experience to use these guns, but after a while muscle memory takes over.
Mike

And Ford had told me that several times but I didn't adhere to it when concentrating sternly on target practice. But once that scear is tripped, when it is loosed. whether frozen by ice, held in battery by the safety, or whatever, it is going to go off......

On the frozen Remington semi-Auto where the trigger had been pulled with the mechanics frozen, a Hunting buddy whilst taking off his waders had laid it in the floorboard of his 1978 Ford(drastically lifted - Huge Lift Kit) with the heater on & when it did unthaw, it went off & luckily he received the worst of the accident with the butt flying back & hitting him in the thigh. The rocker panels / sideskirts / floorboard withstood the business end and he never did anything to it. Just a reminder......

Now there was another hunting buddy on that side bent over taking off his waders too.

Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

I have owned drillings and a vierling for over 25 years. I have and continue to hunt upland birds with them. Most of mine are 16x16x8x57 or 9.3x72. I even shoot skeet occasionally just for something different. The clays dissappear with those damn tight german extra full chokes. You would think that after all these years I would have had the opportunity to use the rifle barrel on a coyote or fox but it has not been so thus far. I did impress my friends once when they made a bet that I could not shoot a pop bottle at a 100 yards with that contraption. I pulled the trigger and the pop bottle disappeared. Probably more luck than skill and I was a lot younger back then.

A friend took his drilling to Africa and enjoyed it mainly on bird hunts, with a backup. He also used it with a scope to shoot clays on a Sunday afternoon. Lots of fun.