"The Drilling" by Norbert Klups: because research is often the best bit of buying kit

Pine Marten

Well-Known Member
I've just taken delivery of a copy of "The Drilling", as far as I can tell the only current book on the topic. I wanted to buy it in the original German, but the few I could find were priced at around €250, with which I could have a fine stalking trip. However it's easily available in English, printed in vast quantities for the insatiable US market I should imagine.

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http://www.amazon.com/The-Drilling-Gun-Technology-Universal/dp/0764327496

Anyway, hours, or indeed years of reading, research and preparation for the big event now lie ahead. Fantastic.
 
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Am I correct; is that a very neat "Bergstutzen Drilling" on the cover? ... or a "Triumphbock", as Mr Fanzoj calls it...

Certainly, whatever the name, it's very neat... much more pleasing and... infinitely more use than some of the "tactical" "black-guns" you see the wannabe soldier boys carrying around these days.

Nice book.
 
I believe you're right, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. If Young PM permits, I may have a browse this evening, but there are no guarantees...
 
You gonna reload for it PM??

Cheers!

K
:coat:

Actually, yes. Because when it comes, it will be a 7mm rimmed cartridge, and given that they're even harder to pin down in the UK than my 7mm-08, and that everything I have will be a 7mm of some form, there will be an economy of scale. So I reckon that will be the catalyst.
 
Am I correct; is that a very neat "Bergstutzen Drilling" on the cover? ... or a "Triumphbock", as Mr Fanzoj calls it...

I had a quick leaf through the book yesterday between bottle feeds, and yes, that's a "Triumph Drilling" from Ferlach. The book has everything you could wish to know about drillings in it, including a handy guide to buying a used one. Although some of the advice is unusable such as all the things you should look out for when you test shoot it, which won't be possible. Also, anything a bit old, I will be able to read up on beforehand so I know exactly what I'm looking at. Some of the translation is a bit clunky. "Berstutzen" is translated as "mountain gun", a fore-end is referred to as a foreshaft, but then this isn't a novel by Hermann Hesse or Erich Maria Rilke, it's a reference work on rifles.
 
I had a quick leaf through the book yesterday between bottle feeds, and yes, that's a "Triumph Drilling" from Ferlach. The book has everything you could wish to know about drillings in it, including a handy guide to buying a used one. Although some of the advice is unusable such as all the things you should look out for when you test shoot it, which won't be possible. Also, anything a bit old, I will be able to read up on beforehand so I know exactly what I'm looking at. Some of the translation is a bit clunky. "Berstutzen" is translated as "mountain gun", a fore-end is referred to as a foreshaft, but then this isn't a novel by Hermann Hesse or Erich Maria Rilke, it's a reference work on rifles.

You've sold me on the book.... and.... it may well cost me dearly.... but that's just a risk I'll have to take.... :D

I'll say this though, having now shot alongside drilling users... the younger ones complain that they're too bulky and would rather have a nice slim double rifle, with spare combo barrels. Only thinking of YMPM here, of course.
 
I'll say this though, having now shot alongside drilling users... the younger ones complain that they're too bulky and would rather have a nice slim double rifle, with spare combo barrels. Only thinking of YMPM here, of course.

I'm not sure that I qualify as a "younger one" anymore, but when I definitely was one, I used to draw drillings in my school exercise books (amongst other things). So I'm going to make my own mind up on this one if I have a chance to! As for YMPM, he's only just worked out how to roll over, suck his thumb and shake a rattle in a non-committal sort of way, so I don't really know what sort of firearms he likes. He really hates the toy monkey that hangs over his play mat though. So maybe something in a calibre appropriate for baboons.
 
I'm not sure that I qualify as a "younger one" anymore, but when I definitely was one, I used to draw drillings in my school exercise books (amongst other things). So I'm going to make my own mind up on this one if I have a chance to! As for YMPM, he's only just worked out how to roll over, suck his thumb and shake a rattle in a non-committal sort of way, so I don't really know what sort of firearms he likes. He really hates the toy monkey that hangs over his play mat though. So maybe something in a calibre appropriate for baboons.

I hate to break this to you... but... the early indications are that he might prefer a Blaser . Very rattly and requiring to suck one's thumb is often a consequence of using them.

Hopefully this phase will pass quickly.

Baboon shooting is definitely into double rifle territory. So there is hope.

Doubtless he, like you, will make up his own mind.
 
I have a 7x57R over 16G which is usually what I pull out of the cabinet for my evening excursions, short barrels equals very easy to move around in a kanzel =(shooting shed on stilts).
I also have an 8x58r Sauer but cases are very hard to find for that one.
Martin
 
Good find Pine Marten, I'm most envious.

This is the book that I've been looking for for the last couple of years since I first saw it advertised. The trouble is that it was over £200 and I haven't seen a cheap copy on Amazon yet. I suppose that when I eventually do see a copy it won't be worth reading, it's probably one of those glossy coffee table books that's all show and no substance. I could try my old trick of asking the local library to order it in, I've done that in the past with a few specialised shooting books and it only costs a pound or so to make a request.:lol:

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I think a 7x57R and 16b drilling would be a beautiful compromise between weight, handling, portability and all-round effectiveness. Sure, 12b and 7x65R give you a bit more power all round, but I'd take any combination of those in the right gun.
 
I think a 7x57R and 16b drilling would be a beautiful compromise between weight, handling, portability and all-round effectiveness. Sure, 12b and 7x65R give you a bit more power all round, but I'd take any combination of those in the right gun.

Agreed - not much that a 16b won't do that a 12 can. With slugs 16s are very close to 12, and with shot you have just the same. But in a lighter and sleeker package.
 
I'd have though that 16bore would be the sensible choice for a drilling.

In Jagdwaffen (PreuB 1930) we read (in my own paraphrastic translation - which please excuse) that
'like everything elso today, shotgun bore is a matter of fashion. Abroad, 12bore holds sway, and it therefore went without saying that German Jaeger adopted 12bore in preference to the previously-widespread 16bore. However, recently we see return to 16bore, and in Drillings even 20bore. Even though the barrels of 20/70 have to be stronger than those of 16/65 such that little weight is saved, the gun is thereby made neater and the action better-adapted for the incorproation of rifle-barrels.'

In Waffenkunde und Schiesslehre fuer Jaeger (Popp 1966) we find that 16/70 is recommended for combination guns and 12bore for ordinary shotguns.
 
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None of the main manufacturers make them in 16 bore anymore though, it's all 20 bore instead. I have a 16 bore hammergun and it really is beautiful to handly and shoot. I've never noticed any difference in performance with the 12 bore. The one situation in which they're not really substitutable is wildfowling. I had some 16 bore bismuth cartridges and I may have been having an off-day, but I'm pretty sure that I wounded some ducks. I'm not the greatest shotgun shot (decent, but that's it) and I prefer to throw as much shot as I can, as hard as I can, so I have a dedicated 'fowling piece which is a Yildiz side-by-side in 12/89 (3.5"). I know that it throws a lot of steel very hard... That said, the newest 12 bore drillings have 3" chambers and steel-proofed barrels. But they are very pricey. I'd happily take a used, high-quality 16 bore one given the chance.
 
A most interesting thing from the 1930 book is the author's prescient view of 20bore for combination guns.

However, looking through retail catalogues, the 16/70 option seems to persist into Kettner's 2007 catalogue, though in a smaller and smaller range.
 
I think a 7x57R and 16b drilling would be a beautiful compromise between weight, handling, portability and all-round effectiveness..

As these are precisely the characteristics of my own drilling, I can only agree - and with enough practice maybe I'll do it justice one day!

Thanks PM for the link to the book, my order for which Amazon will hopefully be processing as I write.

Re. smoothbore chamberings, I do like the 16g, and the slimmer barrels do help the looks of a drilling that has them, but I think modern barrel-making is able to produce 12g tubes to the same weight, and it goes without saying that the variety of loads available in 12g is greater, unless you load your own 16g cartridges, of course.

KB, that picture of the vierling actually made me go a bit weak at the knees - all those barrels! all that choice! all the indecision and confusion that could potentially be mine! Just as well then that that daft Jumbo-head top lever cooled my ardour before I had time to confront the harsh reality that even an unexpectedly-profitable kidney auction would scarcely garner up the necessary funds to place such a mechanical wonder in my trembling hands.
 
KB, that picture of the vierling actually made me go a bit weak at the knees - all those barrels!

Why stop at vier?

To quote from Hints for the Shooting Season by Ashley Sterne:

When ordering (a gun from the gunmakers) it is as well to state how many barrels you want. For my part I like quite a lot of barrels, the weapon which I am at present using having seventeen. When I walk on the moors with it, people think I'm going to give an organ recital and go through their pockets for threepenny-bits.
 
Why stop at vier?

To quote from Hints for the Shooting Season by Ashley Sterne:

When ordering (a gun from the gunmakers) it is as well to state how many barrels you want. For my part I like quite a lot of barrels, the weapon which I am at present using having seventeen. When I walk on the moors with it, people think I'm going to give an organ recital and go through their pockets for threepenny-bits.

Lovely! Thankyou. First laugh of the day - and a good one at that!
 
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