Why a Drilling or Combo Gun?

[dougk]

Why did you buy a Drilling or Combo gun vs a bolt, semi, or single shot gun?
Thanks
Doug

[no guns here]

I want a drilling because they are way cool...  Plus a neat conversation piece... plus EVERYBODY has a RemChester, very few have a drilling of any type.  Why be normal???


ngh

[Tom H.]

There is something to be said about having a firearm that had more hours in it (fitting, finishing, etc)  than 5 other bolt actions combined.  Hey, anyone that can make a 3 barrel gun as light as a standard Remington 700 has to have used some level of skill to do it.

Just hope that level of skill doesn't disappear entirely.  CNC can't replace everything that was done in those guns.

If you like drillings, my guess is that you also own (or want to own) a  Cuckoo Clock.  And a Broomhandle Mauser

Just nice to have something that wasn't pulled out of a machine and screwed together.

Tom

[pastorp]

Tom, I have 3 cookoo clocks but can't aford a drilling yet. Byron PS actually the part about not affording one is not quite correct, I guess I just havent found the right one yet.

[Drilling Man]

Why did you buy a Drilling or Combo gun vs a bolt, semi, or single shot gun?

  When i was a young boy, i saw a pict of some drillings in a "Shooters Bible" my dad had bought....... i instantly fell in love!!!  A few years later dad bought a Savage combo chambered in 22win. mag. over .410 shotgun...  I shot my first rooster pheasant with that gun and i thought it was sooo cool that i could have a rifle and a shotgun with me at all times when hunting with it!

  I NEVER stopped thinking about those drillings, and i FINALLY made in happen in the early 80's...

  I've spend much of my hunting career flying into "out of the way" places, and having a gun the breakes own into a small package is a HUGE plus!  I've also always lived where i could hunt more than one species on a hunt....  Like in the interior of Alaska, there's moose, bear and caribou for big game, but you can also hunt ducks, geese, grouse or ptmarigan too...  A combo or drilling REALLY shines on a hunt like that!!

  Sadly, most folks just look at a drilling as a "rich mans gun" and never see the versatility in them!  Then if you look in their gun closet, there's enough armor in there that they could have bought several drillings!!  LOL

  DM

[trotterlg]

Most of the countries that they originate from have a gun ownership limit, some only one gun per person, so now we have Drillings, three in one etc.  Larry

[no guns here]

Nah... you can have as many guns as you want in Germany.  I know guys that have 30+ rifles and shotguns.  Drillings were a response to the type of hunting that is done here.  Many times there are drive hunts where you can shoot roe deer, hogs, pheasant, fox, doves, badger, or whatever is in season.  So there were were shotgun barrels and rifle barrels built onto one action. Typical german engineering.  Over-engineered, but it works.  A neat solution to the problem of needing to carry a shotgun with a heavy load or a slug, a shotgun with a light bird load, and a rifle at the same time.  I really hav my eye on the Antonio Zoli drilling.  I've been to one of the loca gun stores here so many times to drool over that gun that they know me by name..

ngh

[dpastordan]

Two words:  squirrel hunting.  That is why I decided to get a combo.  My uncle had the perfect squirrel gun when I was a kid.  It was a .22 over .410 - Savage.   When I started squirrel hunting - it was with a shotgun.  This is good when the squirrels are running.  But it can be messy when you pop a sitting squirrel with a full choked .410.  Then I got a .22 and it was great for sitting squirrels but iffy at hitting them on the run.  So I would take my little brother hunting with me...he would use the .22 and I would use the .410 or vice versa.  Then sometimes my brother wasn't available. 

Two more words:  rabbit hunting.  I killed my first rabbit when I was squirrel hunting with a .22.  He was running and my first shot broke both back legs.  I wanted a shotgun.  Another time I was hunting with my brother, he had the shotgun and I the .22.  A rabbit took off running and my brother missed.  It stopped.  I didn't. 

Four more words:  hunting deer in swamps.  When I was living in NC I had a .30-30 over 20 gauge.  The deer were small and it was like hunting rabbits.  Buckshot was the preferred load.  Yet sometimes the deer would stop. 

I can think of more justification if you want.