Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The PERFECT woods loafer's rifle from rabbits to deer?

I had a nice cape gun with a three barrel set 2 12 gauge side by side and one cape.....sold it what was I thinking.

This seems perfect to me.

Francis Sell commonly used the term "woods loafers" in his writing. In fact his 1964 book, "The Deer Hunter's Guide" is dedicated to "woods loafers", as well as trappers and Indians that he had hunted with. His favorite walking rifle was indeed a 25-20 lever gun.

I have used Marlin levers in several calibers for walking guns: 25-20, .357, .44, and 30-30. They carry very easy. Where I walk I frequently get shots at ground squirrels with an occasional jack rabit or coyote.

I carry my snub-nose .38 in my back pocket most of the time, too. There is always the possibility of running into something rabid. Possibilities also include armed pot-growers, feral dogs, mountain lions, bears, and rattlesnakes. I feel rather naked if I am in the big outdoors with nothing but a pocket knife.

But my all-time favorite walk-about rifle is my Savage 1920 bolt gun in 250-3000 loaded with 75 gr V-Max bullets. The "mini-Springfield" weighs only six and a half pounds with the scout scope attached. The stock is very trim and the gun is accurate enough that it has taken dozens of ground squirrels at around 100 yards. It is much harder to hit a ground squirrel with the lever guns.

With the 250 Savage I wouldn't feel under-gunned going up against the bigger animals, yet it is wonderful on the squirrels that make up 95 percent of my actual targets. I use rather light loads in the old gun and usually don't feel the need for hearing protection when I shoot it on my walks. It was well worn when I got it 20 years ago and I bet it has more miles in the woods than I do.

Perhaps a shotgun/rifle OU of dreiling.

Expat

A nice Cape Gun was exactly what I was thinking.... Merkel makes one, for example. (As one example of a new production gun.) I think I would take the Merkel model 240 cape gun in 7x65R Brenneke (or maybe 8x57JRS) and 20 ga.





Cheers!
-Bob F.

Cape gun is good, drilling is better. My favorite lately is a 12x12x.30-30 Sauer/Daly hammer drilling (about a century old), partly because it can be opened, cocked, etc. without making any noise. Thus a cast-bullet handload can be substituted for a normal 170-grain jacketed load. It also has a flip-up tang aperture sight so it very accurate out to 150+ yards. And the shotgun barrels can be loaded with birdshot in one side and buckshot or slug in the other. Can't get more versatile than that.

I would like to own a drilling one day. It sounds like a great answer to the question.


R.

for all you american's.
a drilling is the correct answer.
12ga x 12ga x 30-06.
in the right tube of the shotgun, put an einstecklauf (sp?) or single shot barrel of your caliber of choice, if i remmber correctly they can be had in 22lr up and maybe bigger than a 5.6x54r magnum.

now this all from a long time ago when i hunted in germany, so i stand to be corrected.
anyways, say you put a 222 in it. when you screw the 2 parts together in the barrel and tighten them together , there are 2 screws, 1 will go up the other to the side, this moves the poi for that insert barrel.
sight your main large caliber in say at 100 yards, and the smaller one by using the screws to move the poi, at maybe 50.
now you have a shotgun, small caliber rifle and a large game caliber all in 1 rifle and all shooting the the same aiming point.

heavy, sorta, clubby, kinda, but 1 gun to rule them all !

While I still had decent eyesight it was a M94 Marlin in 25-20M(WCF), 24" tapered oct. barrel and a Williams 5D peep shooting cast bullets.

I have Mod 99's in .250Sav and .243Win. I have a Win Mod 94 16" Wrangler in .32Win. I have a Ruger Mod 77 full stock carbine in .243. Any of them would work for the woods carry described. I think that a 16" Taurus Thunderbolt pump or Mod 92 lever in the .327Fed would sure trip my trigger.

+1.... I have 4 of them....

Mule Deer,

A cape gun is what came to mind for me because from my reading it is lighter to carry than a drilling. I have never owned either so perhaps you could add some info.

Is there a substantial difference in weight or in handling between the two? Also the cape gun and drilling pictures I've seen reflect a higher quality gun than the combination guns like the savage that some posters mentioned.

Thanks, Norm

Discerning gentlemen provide the answer.

I only have one, so far, but I've had it a while.

The Rossi 92 in 357 I pictured on pg #1 weighs 7 lbs 4.6 oz as you see it. That includes the sling, the camo tape, and 19 rounds loaded with 1600 fps, 190 gr cast bullets. That's hard to beat as a woods loafer rifle. You guys packing a 12 lb rifle + a backpack + whatever won't walk far from your truck. Not at my age, anyhow...

doubletap,

I am certainly not Mule Deer but just old. However since I have had and used the drilling for a long time, well let me have a say.

The J.P.Sauer&Sohn,Suhl drilling of mine weighs 6.5 lbs. Its barrels are 23.75" long. This is a lightweight gun that balances as well or better (in my view) than any gun I have. Its not even heavy with its 4X Hensoldt Dural-Dialytan scope that weighs 3/4 lb with its claw mounts.

I use it mostly with no scope however I shot a buck with it and that was with the scope on it.

I have handled cape guns and one would be just about as good as a drilling in terms of having a rifle there. It would be, of course just a single shot shotgun. This drilling handles better, as a shotgun, than any gun I have. I have other doubles including Bernadelli.

I would get whichever one I could first. I would have no problem with a 2 barrel combination gun. Heck I want both too! There is a recent post here on the net of a gentleman who showed pictures of a wolf he shot with his combination gun. If I can find the link I will post it as the pictures and story are great.

Look at it this way, you get three guns not just one so right off thats a 66% discount!

My 16 gauge under 8mm rimmed is a beautiful, lovely thing, but the Savage .30-30 over 12 is my loafing gun. Virtually indestructable, acccurate, great deer rifle with 125 grain ballistic tip loads, and a 3 inch Brenneke slug will discourage just about anything. I also always carry three solids for the .30-30. They look silly, but they will plow through a lot of bone and muscle at fifty yards. Throw in my S&W 4" barreled .22 revolver and a small folding knife and I am ready for a great day in the boonies.

Terery

bluesman knows!

That Savage can take some wear and not worry. Thats a good idea there bluesman and they can't cost all that much. On some other post a Baikal combination gun was mentioned.

I like the idea of the .22 pistol as well and carry a Woodsman however just the combination gun alone is a lot of flexibility.

Combination gun story

doubletap,

As Savage 99 already suggested, the weight and handling of a drilling as opposed to a Cape gun depends on the individual gun. In general, most Cape guns aren't as high qualiy as most drillings (though there are certainly exceptions to that) and many Cape guns were often built pretty stoutly, since they were meant to be used hard.

I have three drillings, and the heaviest (a recent model Sauer 12x12x.30-06) weighs 7 pounds 6 ounces, if I recall correctly, without the scope, or just about the same as my older hammer Sauer/Daly 12x12x.30-30. But I also have an old hammer drilling in 16x16x9.3x72R that weighs under 7 pounds.

German combinations guns are often lighter than either drillings or Cape guns. My wife Eileen has a nifty little pre-WWII German O/U 16/9.3x72R that weighs around 6 pounds without the scope, and even with the scope weighs under 7 pounds.

The Savage O/U combo guns do make pretty good woods-loading guns, as my friend Bluesman points out. In fact one of the very first firearms I bought when a teenager was a Savage 20/.22 magnum and I shot a pile of game with it over the years. But eventually I got tired of only having a single-shot shotgun, and started acquiring drillings. Of course I could afford a little more gun by then....

This one:



Or, this one:

A modernized Remington 25 carbine in 357 Max would be a pretty cool walkabout rifle too! Make mine alone the lines of the 14 1/2 carbine, with a curved buttplate, pistolgrip stock, and full-length magazine tube. Maybe with an integral Weaver style base, like the IMI Timberwolf pump guns, but with a pistolgrip stock.

Jeff