A pawn shop find

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
I Don't usually frequent one of our local pawn shops. Because of his pricing. But i had some time to burn. So in i went. I was amazed, he had 2 rifles in his show case that had side by side shotgun barrels, with a rifle barrel under and between the shotgun barrels. I do not know what that barrel configuration is called..
But both guns were 16 gauge shotguns. One of the rifles was chambered for a 25/303 british. The other rifle was chambered in a 9. something. The case for the latter rifle was quite long and had a straight taper from the rimed base to the base of the neck
Both rifles had seen a lot of use but no abuse was obvious. One of them had custom made trigger guard, but plate, and forarm cap made from Buffalo horn (American Bison)
I did see a sales tag on one of them. it was 3K $ Kevin
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
74 or 62.
the Drillings are almost always in a rimmed case even the 7 and 8 X 57's come with the R designation.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
If one of the shotgun barrels doesn't look quite right the last 8 inches or so it might be a drilling with a paradox barrel . The Britts had a thing for them in Africa . It would give them a rifle and a shotgun with an over modified to full choke and an over imp-cyl to modified . The bonus is that the open choke is oval and spiral . It imparts something like 1-72" spin for RB but still has a round muzzle . Presuming I remember what I read about them 10 yr ago correctly .
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
The price is high, but if you can get it down to the less than 2K range, you will be good. The market is very thin for these, unless advertised on the internet they don't bring much at the LGS.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
25/303 Brit and 2 16ga barrels! I can't think of much you couldn't do with one of those.

What? No credit card?
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Quite a few of the older drillings were chambered in 9,3x72R, which is originally a black powder cartridge, if I remember correctly. 9,3x74R is a more potent cartridge, with external ballistics like x62, but with lower preassure. I have never owned a drilling myself, but they are quite popular in my parts. People who have them tend to be very enthusiastic about the flexibility they offer. Deer? Pheasant? Boar? Fox? Bring’em on!
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
The one's I've seen personally were at Jaqua's (Findlay, Ohio) and you'd multiply the pawn shop's price by TEN. These all looked like new and were exquisitely finished works of art.

My dad saw me eye-balling them and took my astounded expression to mean I'd like something like that, so...... he bought me a Savage 24V, 20/30-30.:oops:

Not quite the same but it covered a lot of bases for me as a kid and was a lot cheaper.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
A friend had a J.P. Saur drilling when I was a teen. 8x57R under two 12 ga tubes. REALLY superb
gun, but had been heated up enough to scorch/char the forend in a house fire, and it was given to him
as junk. Resoldered the top rib and side ribs, and we shot it with BP shotshells and BP load in 8x57,
because of the low pressures. It was beautiful. The rear sight folded flat, just disappeared, and
would pop up at the touch of a finger on the latch. 5 rds stored in a hatch on the bottom edge
of the buttstock. Fine wood, Monte Carlo cheekpiece, engraved all over the locks. The first really
high quality gun I ever saw, I was a teen. Had no rimmed brass for the 8x57, so pried cases out with
a screwdriver.

Bill
 
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Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
Chris Thats the cartridge i saw. No interest on my part. I would have to sell all of my guns to get one of them. I don't have any plastic.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Double-rifles and drillings are usually the province of the country-club denizens. Keep your distance, peasant......
 

JSH

Active Member
Worst thing I ever did was walk away from a two barrel set, one was 7x57R with 16 gauge and I forget the other was either 8 or 9.3.
Case, reloading tools and a scope with a claw mount $2000 was a lot of money in 1985 for me.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Cost aside, the added disincentive for me is that I can't hit a stinkin' thing with S x S shotguns. I do a bit better with an O/U, but the pump shotgun is what I grew up shooting and hunting with--so I do my best work with one of those. I have shot so few self-loading shotguns that I can't give a fair appraisal of my skill level (or lack thereof) with the auto-shuckers.

My first copy of Cartridges of the World (3rd Edition, IIRC) had a diagram of multi-barrel Germanic long arms arrangements. There were a whole host of configurations, Drillings (S x S shotgun over single rifle), Doppelganger (S x S shotgun), Doppelflinte (S x S rifle), Bockdoppelflinte (O/U rifle), and several other variants I can't recall. In places like California where upland bird and larger game seasons overlap, a Drilling makes a lot of sense as a field piece. Their prices don't, for most of us mere mortals. Those Savage rifle-over-shotgun 24-series long guns always seemed like a great and affordable answer. A hunting buddy of mine had a 30/30 over 20 gauge IIRC, and he grassed at least 2 deer with it that I know of from having helped field-dress them. Some time in the late 70s or early 80s Savage offered a 12 gauge/308 or 30-06 and a 12 gauge/243 arrangement, but I only saw the ads for a short time. One of those would be MOST EXCELLENT, if the quality was there. I never had one in hand/eyes on.
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
....................Those Savage rifle-over-shotgun 24-series long guns always seemed like a great and affordable answer. A hunting buddy of mine had a 30/30 over 20 gauge IIRC,.................

That's what mine was and the 30-30 barrel actually shot very well. I didn't get the prestige associated with "keeping peasants at distance," but it was within the family budget and it was certainly versatile. It wasn't the smoothest-handling shotgun I've ever used, but it worked. It made me wonder if the real drillings handled better or whether they seemed heavy with a rifle barrel stuck on the bottom.

The next closest thing I ever had to a drilling or "combination gun" was one the Army loaned me for a few years - an M203.:rolleyes:
 

Rushcreek

Well-Known Member
At one time, Savage imported Valmet combination guns from Finland. I think they were .222 or .308 under 12ga.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
At one time, Savage imported Valmet combination guns from Finland. I think they were .222 or .308 under 12ga.

Those are almost certainly the firearms I am thinking of.

I have handled a few probable 'WWII bring-backs' of the Drilling persuasion over the years. They were not especially heavy, and "swung" quite well. One was priced almost reasonably (early 1990s, $950), in nice shape, 16 x 16 over 8 x 57R IIRC. My youngest daughter was less than a year old, the $1K price out-the-door was still a lot of money (even with lab task force overtime largess), and both 16 gauge shells and the 8 x 57R brass were pretty scarce, and was the 8mm a J-bore or S-bore? I really couldn't justify it at the time. I passed. NICE FIREARM, though--and uber-practical for the areas I hunt. Gotta figure that in today's dollars that firearm would run in the $1900-$2000 Area Code, and given that I know a whole lot more about ammo crafting than I did 25 years ago, I would be more inclined to bring it home. I don't know how well it would take to the Barnes bullets and non-toxic shot required to hunt with in CA, but it would still be a fun toy to play with and to hunt with in the balance of the USA.