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d-o-k
04-12-2006, 01:08 PM
I have a weakness for Drillings ! sxs shot gun over a rifle barrel ! I was recomended to a site tonight by a very cruel friend ! It was a Ferlach of Austria Drilling comprising of 12guage sxs over a .223 & 30-06 ! I have seen one other example of this type of drilling & it was owned by the Smith who had built it whilst in Ferlach ! It was a 12gx16 over a 7x57R & 5.6x52R ! The example I saw advertised tonight (secndhand ) was going for a cool $35,000 Aus ! Ah well I can dream on :coffee:

Dave

versifier
04-12-2006, 02:11 PM
Not to be the grammar police, but I'm getting out the violin for this one. With three barrels it's a dreilling, and with four it's a vierling. It was the Germans (or Austrians) who invented them, and the names come from their words for "three" (drei) and "four" (vier). The word "drilling" :cry: is getting to be used more often in English, which is pretty much a bummer as the real words have a much richer sound to them that roll off of the tongue and serve as a better reminder of the origins and history of these incredible guns.
Too often when we import a word into our language, it loses something very important, sometimes merely in pronunciation, but also sometimes in the spelling that clearly shows the word's origin. This happens more often with peoples' names (you should see and hear what they did to my Italian name at Ellis Island) than it does with common nouns and verbs, but I liken the practice to the image of the typical Brittish or American tourist in a non-English speaking country: "Just speak slowly, dear, or if they don't understand plain English, speak slowly and loudly." :mrgreen:
That said, I can never resist the temptation to handle them and dream about them whenever I find one at gun shops and shows. When the dealers know me, I am usually handed a drool rag if I am salivating too heavily. I fell in love with one particularly nice vierling a few years back, 16ga SxS, a .22lr on top, and an 8x57R underneath. The engraving on it was incredible and extended partway up the barrels, including grip cap & skeletonized but plate (with checkered wood showing), and the stock was one of the most beautiful and heavily figured pieces of walnut that I have ever seen (and I have used many exotic woods doing top end custom furniture and jewelry boxes - never seen anything like this before or since, nicer than a XXXXFancy grade). It was like a museum piece, serious move a man to tears art. The owner wanted just less than $30,000US for it, but he was kind enough to let my teenage daughter and me both handle it and dream for a little while. I thought for a minute he was going to offer an even swap for her - if it had been my ex wife with me and not my daughter, I'd have been sorely tempted, but that would have been too a cruel thing to do to any man. :mrgreen:

kg42
04-12-2006, 09:50 PM
This reminds me of that fellah who once got himself a drilling.
...Shows it a lot, "look at the wood, and that blueing, and you seeee, you load it for bird in that barrel, you put a brenneke in that one for boars and of course the rifled one gets a H-Mantel Mega-Zapper Partition for Deers; and look at these sights; you see you flip that one here and ........"

Thankfully hunting day arrives and he leaves town before dawn, reaches his destination, unpacks his gear and starts nemroding around.
After a while, our man finally hears something, closes on and finds himself looking at a 250lbs boar and simultaneously aiming and firing (that might only be badmouthing, I wasn't there...).
The next thing he feels is a huge commotion and he finds himself lying down on the ground... After gathering his thoughts, our hero finds out that he is now the owner of an illegally short smoothbore weapon with a matching half piece of beautifully oiled stock....
It soon becomes painfully obvious that the three barrels fired simultaneoulsy and that the 300lbs boar is gone...

Next Monday first hour, our dejected hunter goes to the shop and raises hell, accusing the sales guy of attempted murder, selling him an unsafe and inaccurate gun as well as depriving his family of 350lbs of wild saussages....
On Tuesday, the man calls to ask if the importator of the gun has fixed the problem and why not, after all the scare and the moral damage of loosing a once in a life time record breaking 400lbs boar ....
After that conversation, all the gunsmith could do was grumbling that if the gun had been aimed at anything in particular at the time of firing that thing wouldn't have gone anywhere on it's own...

Well me I don't know... Valmet used to make a cool over/under with combinations of 12/7x64/30-06/9.3; I think you could get new barrels later, or buy a case with two sets; the gun wasn't too expensive because you could match the barrels POIs yourself with a simple screw.

d-o-k
04-13-2006, 03:04 AM
Versifier . Please don't ever feel that your being the Grammer Police with the correction of a Pronuonceation of a Word /Name ! I feel that I have learnt something New & for this I'm thankfull ! I love to be able to use the correct name for a product .I really get on my high horse over here when Somebody (and most do over here ) Refer to a Sako as that & not it's proper Soko (as prounounced in Finnish ) or Mauser called a Morezer !

Dave

versifier
04-13-2006, 03:58 AM
Thanks, Dave. They call them "saykos" over here, too. Amusing as I live on the Saco River (correctly pronounced "socko", too). You can usually figure out if an old timer is talking about a Mauser when he refers to "one of them German guns", or a SMLE as "it shoots that stuff that won't load in my -06 or my .30-30 either". :mrgreen:
kg42, the local gun shop had a Valmet with FOUR barrel sets that was in on consignment when my middle daughter was about three (now 16) for around $2000. As I remember they were 12g over 12g, 12g over .06, I think 7x57 over 7x57 (could have been 7x64 - it wasn't a belted case anyway), and something (maybe 28g or .410) over a .22Hornet. It was just to dream about with two kids, two jobs, sick wife, and bills to pay, but we got curious one Sunday afternoon and the owner and I shot the 7mm barrels with some factory ammo out back. He put up two targets and we each took our time shooting ten shots offhand at around 100yds. They were apparently regulated for the load we were using as we both put all our shots into about three inches. We were impressed. I cleaned the barrels, he cleaned the action. It sold about a month later to someone from out of the area. I haven't seen another since, but I sure do remember wanting it.