Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Combination Guns and Drillings Combo gun uses?

Dont get me wrong as I can truely appreciate the beauty of a classic drilling or combo gun but in the USA what do you use them for? I'm not talking about a 22/410 as I can understand their use. But where do you use something like a 16x16x9.3? Here in Wisconsin you can't have shot shells with you when deer hunting or slugs or a rifle with you when bird hunting.

I have plenty of rifles that are pretty much useless for hunting so I'm not ripping on them, just curious what the uses of them are in the USA.

reelman, a lot of that is going to depend on where you are. Each state has different rules for what you can and can't carry and when you can or can't carry it. Then, in Missouri, landowners have a different set of rules from non-landowners. On my property during deer firearms general season I'm pretty sure I can carry my drilling or combination gun loaded with #6 or smaller shot, at least I used to be able to unless our glorious MDC has screwed that up also, and the rifle barrel loaded. I don't believe that has changed. I have an einstecklauf in 22 LR for one of my drillings. Again, on my property and maybe on public property in this instance, during squirrel season I can carry all three barrels loaded. The 22 for sitting squirrels, the shotgun for running shots through leafy treetops and the centerfire rifle for yodel dogs if they show up, which they occasionally do. Crow season can be the same way, shotgun for crows and rifle for whatever is legal that might need it.

Besides, they just plain cool!!!...lol!!!!

As far as them being practical here as they were/are on the Continent I don't believe they have the same utility. The hunting is so different in a "them vs. us" context.

I can think of places where deer & quail seasons overlap, and where I've jumped quail - in an area where deer are few & far between, and wished for a shotgun.

Flip side of the coin, bird hunting and you jump a hog.

Here we can have deer, bear, grouse, grey tree squirrel, and mtn quail overlap each other from September to January. That being said, I have only run a across a handful that actually carried a combo gun.

And yeah, jumping a dozen mtn quail when you haven't seen a deer in three days does make you wish for a shotgun!

reelman,

I've hunted in a lot of places in the U.S., and being so restrictive about what you can carry, plus having seasons that don't overlap, is far more common east of the Mississippi than west of it.

Here in Montana our earliest shotgun season starts with upland game (except for pheasants) on September 1st. The first rifle seasons for big game start September 15th for black bear, moose, mountain goat and bighorn sheep, and for deer and in some backcountry areas. Waterfowl starts around october 1st. In early October the pronghorn and pheasant seasons start, and overlap into the general rifle season for deer and elk, which ends the Sunday after Thanksgiving--when both upland and waterfowl seasons are going strong. Then there's spring, where turkey and black bear seasons overlap.

There are no restrictions about not carrying shotgun shells while hunting big game, or not carrying rifle shells while hunting gamebirds. A combination gun comes in mighy handy, and both my wife and I have used ours to hunt both birds and big game on many occasions, often during the same day.

As JB pointed out, rules regarding the use of combo guns/season overlap, tend to get more anal retentive, the further east you go! Here in Alaska, there is ample opportunity to use a combo. The only hang up I've encountered, is with waterfowl. I've gotten varying opinions from ADF&G, and USF&W protection folks, regarding having rifle rounds on hand, while water fowling with a drilling/combo. I choose to take my chances, and hunt with mine anyway. I just make sure that I keep the rifle chamber empty, while actively hunting waterfowl. In PA, where I grew up, and still hunt on occasion, there is still a chance to use a combo. Small game closes right before deer season, so I just try to catch the last week of one, and first week of the other. Leaving the shot shells or rifle rounds at home, accordingly. In the spring, It's gobblers & groundhogs. Hunt gobblers in the morning, and in the afternoon, pop the 6x on, drop in a 7x65R, and shoot whistle pigs!

Jeff

Where I hunt desert muleys, the quail and dove seasons are often open. Tradionally, we hunt quail just before dinner time not far from camp. Came close to killing a buck or two with a handgun while quail hunting. Would have been alot easier to do with a drilling.
Owned a nice drilling for a few years. Was a 16X16 over a 9X57R. Made the brass out of Norma 8X57R cases. Shot very well. I think I paid about $250 for it way back in 1965 or thereabouts.
Another gun I wish I'd have kept. E

sharps4590, I completely understand the cool factor and that's as good of a reason to buy a gun as any.

A 1960s vintage Heym in 16 over 8x57 came to stay awhile back. It has the looks of a very useful game getter and I hope to be strong enough to shoot it before too much longer.

????Believe it or not, here in Darkest New Yorkistan Big Game and small game season are concurrent and you sure as hell CAN use a capegun or drilling so long as you have a big game and small game license. Lotsa times I smack a ruffie or a snowshoe or cottontail whilst deer and bear hunting. My cape gun comes in mighty handy.

Speaking of "that cape gun", when you gonna throw up a photo of that beauty, ET! Good to hear that NY doesn't have stupid rules like PA.

Jeff

THIS oughta bust L2S's chops

Well ET that is really nice....but what is it!?!?! I'm betting 16 bore but what's the rifle and who was the craftsman?

JP Sauer& Sohn. 9,3x72Rx12 gauge. Made in 1912,nitro proofed. Killed my first wild boar with it

Ooops!!!! I would have lost money on that one, eh!?!?! It's still a nice piece!

I've been using my drilling as my main hunting gun for the past 4-5 years. My desire was build in during the years I lived in a couple of states where small and big game seasons overlapped. In particular in Alaska they are really useful since grouse season lasts from mid-late August until February or so. So anytime you are hunting big game the small game season is open. Similar in some East Coast states I lived.

The difficulty is when you live in a state where the seasons do not overlap or where use of a rifle in shotgun season or vice-versa is prohibited.

Mine w/the Einstecklauf in place allows me to do what the Drilling was designed to do.

With overlapping seasons I can.

Shoot a deer/boar/elk with the 7X65R (280 Like Ballistics)
Shoot a deer/boar/elk with a slug or buckshot
Shoot birds/turkeys/ducks/rabbits etc with shotshells
Shoot turkeys/rabbits/coyotes/fox/bobcats w/the 22 magnum.

My Blaser B97 9.3x74/12 guage with 18-1/2 barrels serves as my ranch rifle quite often. Not what you would think of but I have everything covered. Doves in season don't leave me wishing I had a shotgun when I carry a rifle only that day.
I have a serious problem with canines and coyotes mating and I get alot of shots as they are departing. The 9.3 is very forgiving on shot placement when you don't get much time.

OK, with my 12ga/7x57R Antonio Zoli O/U combi with 1to4x Burris scope I have taken:
185 score mule deer buck, and two mallards, same day, same walk.
A 350 lb black bear, used both 7x57 and slug - gun will shoot rifle round and slug to same POI at 100yds.
White tail buck, does and 3 pheasants same day interspersed over several hours.
Antelope and sage grouse and ducks, same walk. Also ducks and grouse while antelope hunting when I didn't see any antelope.
Grouse while elk hunting, turkey while hunting whitetail.
Coyote and a raccoon while turkey hunting, out of shotgun range.
Turkey out of range of shotgun, legal in MT in fall.
Shot a whitetail doe with the rifle and then another that didn't run off with the shotgun slug at about 75 yards. Nothing special here other than the only thing I had to move was my finger.

If you are going to buy a combi or drilling consider what game seasons overlap in your area, Montana is great in that respect, other places, no so much.

WARNING: These things are dangerous, all your other guns may suddenly become obsolete, and you may find yourself spending $?K!!!on another one in a different combination. Worse yet, if your wife hunts, she may ask "How come you've got the REALLY cool, "pretty" gun that does EVERYTHING and I'm stuck with this plastic stocked rifle or that old 20 gauge pump?"

Which one is the wild boar?

Jeff

The handsome one on your lower left, looking at the photo!

De pot be callin' de kettle black!!

Hey, I represent that there remark!!!

BTW, where did YOU learn to speak "Ebonics"? Laffin'!

Another good use for a drilling is as a traveling gun if you do both big game and bird shooting. You can just take one gun and be ready for anything. For example last fall I was working in Europe for 3 months during the hunting season and I brought my drilling. So with only one compact break down rifle I went partridge and pheasant shooting over pointing dogs a couple of times, stalking red stag, and a driven hunt for boar and deer. Was it the "ideal gun" for each task? No, but it worked and made traveling much easier.

The sticky wicket with this is ammo availability if you loose your luggage or use up all your ammo. Especially with an odd or old metric caliber when you are traveling in the US. I've been lucky and never had that happen to me. For example a couple of years ago I took my drilling on an early fall hunt in Southeast Alaska for black tail deer and grouse/waterfowl. Had I lost my ammo finding 7x65r or even 16 bore shotgun ammo in Southeast Alaska would have been difficult. But the hunt went fine:

IMO a drilling or combo gun is about the perfect coyote calling rig, shotgun for the inclose hard chargers and the rifle for the ones that hang up out there aways.

I'm shooting a 12ga over 5.6x50R Mag and it has worked well just about everywhere, we've hunted coyotes in MT, WA, UT, AZand NM this year and have only been disapointed once and that was the day I left it in the truck and missed a good dog in the brush because I only had a rifle along.

Just picked up another combo gun in 12ga 3" with choke tubes over 222Rem, its anice little Marrochi and shoots well, I think it will get a few coyotes too.

I have a Heym 16/.222 that is my coyote calling rig. It also was called into service to shoot pheasants when my buddy cracked the stock on his regular shotgun.
I have a Merkel 16/7x57R that I used to shoot this wolf, and took a ruffed grouse the same morning on the walk back to camp.

my Sauer drilling 16x16/8x57IR was a comfort while hunting ptarmigan on top of a BC mountain that was littered with grizzly bear poop.

These are some photos of the game I mentioned having used my Zoli 12g/7x57R.


Buck and ducks

Bear.

Deer and pheasants.

The sound of "bucks and ducks" made me smile. Looks like fun!

Bernedelli 2000 12ga/5.6x50R Mag Leupold 1x4x20mm

Not far from the Canadian border.


10 miles north of the Mexican border.


Why a combo gun, you never know what your going to run into.

Is that the elusive Fox Tanager?

I've been lusting for a drilling for a couple years, but am not financially ready or learned enough to take the plunge. On a compromise, I recently bought a BRNO ZH204 7x57R over 12ga. Hope to shoot a few grouse with it while deer hunting. Rather eat grouse anyways and a lot easier to drag out of the woods.