Most folks in this country don't have a use for a drilling. We tend to hunt for one species at a time, like Deer, Elk, Pheasants, etc. A couple friends in Europe will send me photos of their weekend hunts, and they'll have a Roe Deer, a Hog, 2 Rabbits, a Pheasant, and a couple Ducks. I guess they shoot anything they happen upon, so a Drilling makes sense.
Except those of us that make use of a drilling. In the deer woods I have no qualms about potting grouse or snowshoes after lunch for dinner. They are outstanding for coyote/predator hunting. Nice to be able to fill your tag while pheasant hunting. No end to the uses of a drilling.
It does to me. I have shot a lot of grouse and chuckar while hunting deer. I took a fat doe and a limit of Bob Whites one day in Oklahoma a few years ago. I also dropped a big rooster that day.
Several years ago I took my two sagehen daily limit while deer hunting in central NV. A good friend from Libby MT popped a moderately large black bear while he was grouse hunting with a 16ga-8X57 drilling I had loaned him to try out.
They aren't many hunters' cup of tea, but some of us use them to full advantage, especially those who have fewer opportunities and days in the field.
I think Biebs is right...for "most folks". I do not fall into that classification, thankfully. For.....decades...I walked my woods nearly every day. Back when we raised cattle it was just checking cows and walking the fence line. After we sold the farm and moved down here the "woods walk" was just for the fun of it. I almost always carry/carried a drilling. Took a lot of squirrels, rabbits, quail killed a yodel dog or two, a few crows and a few deer when in season. My Thieme & Schlegelmelch in 16 X 16 over 9.3 X 75R Nimrod became even more versatile when I installed a 22LR einstecklauf in the right shotgun barrel. I have quite a few fairly nice rifles, double rifles and combination guns I should carry more often but, I almost always grab that T & S drilling. It just works for my purposes and it's......comfortable.
Some of a drilling's use or lack thereof has to depend on where one lives and hunts or woods loafs. Not all states allow the use of something like a drilling either during a season or out. What a shame for the residents.
30 or so years ago, I use to hunt up in a swampy bottom, that had just about anything a fellow wanted to hunt in Louisiana. Many times I took my 30-30 and my 12 ga. Hunt ducks at daylight and then go get on a deer stand. After a while, get down and kill squirrels, it was a hunters paradise.
Anyway, I wanted a 20x20 over a 30-30 and my BIL found one in Houston, for a small fortune. IIRC, they wanted more for that gun than I paid for my new truck. Being a young fellow with a family, I just couldn't pull the trigger, so to speak.
Same BIL found a over/under 30-30 over 20 ga for about $300, but again, that might as well have been 10x's that much, cause I didn't have that much to spend on a gun, either.
It's tough being young and broke!
That was a steal of a deal.