I have heard the sleigh bells: "Drilling-drilling-drilling!"

PSE Composites Limited - The next level Rifle Stocks
Pine Marten

Pine Marten

Well-Known Member
Good morning everyone.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally heard sleigh bells coming from St James Street, so headed down to William Evans to collect the JP Sauer drilling that I bought on eGun over two months ago. This morning, I gave it a thorough clean, polish and inspection, and I'm very happy with my purchase. The left shotgun barrel has a little light pitting but as long as I clean it regularly, that's not a problem. It's been taken care of over the years. I put a dozen patches through the rifle barrel but it's clean, the rifling's sharp, no problems there. The scope mounts are perfectly tight with no movement whatsoever, and you can actually see underneath them to use the open sights or the shotgun barrels if you want to. The scope is clear, it's just that blacking is worn in places, but it's cosmetic. The wood is great.

I put in some 16 bore snapcaps (the 7x57R ones are at the Post Office, I haven't had a chance to collect them yet) and had a play with the triggers and barrel selectors. Here I noticed something that concerns me a bit: I don't seem to be able to fire the right shotgun barrel with the front trigger. It's also the rifle trigger and works fine when the rifle barrel is selected. But it won't move on the shotgun setting. The cocking indicator shows that the hammer is cocked. There's a striker where there should be. So I'm hoping that either I'm not doing something correctly, or maybe it's just a bit stuck because it hasn't been fired in a while and will react positively to a little WD40 or a bash.

There seems to be a very narrow little screw in the front trigger which is probably to adjust the trigger weight. I might have a play with that and see if it makes a difference. I did notice that the triggers seems heavy. I thought there was a set trigger function for the rifle. Maybe there is and I just haven't yet worked out how to set it. Anyway, apart from that, it's great an I really look forward to trying it out either at Malc's on Saturday if there's time, or at the BSRC in January, so I'm already for a day's mixed stalking and shooting on the 10th.

Here are a couple of not very good pictures. I'll try and take some better ones later.

View attachment 50436View attachment 50437
 
That's a good looking gun PM, enjoy.

Is that the safety catch on the lhs?...looks like I've seen on WW Greener guns.

ps...go steady on the tinkering, pause and consider as one of my heroes used to say (Para Handy :) )
 
Yes, that is indeed the safety catch, like on a Greener. Not to be confused with the barrel selector on the tang that says "S" when the shotgun barrels are selected, which does NOT stand for "safe".

I've just emailed the serial number to Sauer to see if they can find out when it was made, and maybe they perhaps have a copy of the user manual lying around. Given that the gun is in perfect condition pretty much, I'm hoping that the trigger thing is just down to me being a numpty.
 
Congrats PM! Lovely bit of kit. Have been reading your thread on this for a while and am glad that Santa came early after all the hassle and bureaucracy. Enjoy!
 
Set triggers are generally push forward to engage.
Is the shotgun trigger an inertia trigger that engages the second barrel after the first has fired? To find out fire the first barrel then bump the stock butt on the floor and try the second barrel with the same trigger? Maybe........
 
I have by the way a Docter 6x42 with the same rail system that would suit that gun perfectly.:norty: Interested?
 
Wait until you've got all the snap caps before 'playing' and leave those wee screws well alone for now.

It does look smart but still has way too many triggers for my liking!

Well done.

K
 
Klenchblaize said:
Wait until you've got all the snap caps before 'playing' and leave those wee screws well alone for now.

It does look smart but still has way too many triggers for my liking!

Well done.

K
Click to expand...

Thanks K. Don't worry, I won't muck around with it or take any stupid risks. It could well be that the rear trigger fires both shotgun barrels although that would be a strange arrangement. A bit more pondering and experimenting with snap caps is required.
 
Hearty congrats PM, I'm delighted for you that the navigation of the importation nightmare has finally completed successfully. What a lovely Christmas present, the rifle looks superb, hope you have many happy years of use.
 
Post. Two horizontal square ended ones and a vertical one ending in a point.

Right, I just found a copy of the manual for the Colt-Sauer version for the American market, and the front trigger should fire the right shotgun barrel, the rear trigger the left one, like in a normal shotgun.
http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/FIREARMS/colt_drilling_colt_sauer_sporting_rifle.pdf

There is a trigger adjustment screw which the manual says you should never turn as you could make the trigger pull too light (page 22, section5). Which begs the question of why they put a screw that you should never use there in the first place. But I wonder whether it's perhaps been screwed in too tight resulting in the opposite problem. It would also seem that you can set the rifle trigger by pushing it forward. But you can't actually un-set it without firing it. I shall have a play when I have the snap caps.
 
Delighted to hear you finally have your drilling in your hands.

Re. the right-barrel issue. My Krieghoff also fires the rifle barrel from the front trigger BUT it does so using the LEFT lock.

By contrast, without the rifle barrel selected, the front trigger trips the RIGHT lock.

If your drilling is made the same way then it is possible that your right lock has a problem (possibly just gunged up).

Re. the set trigger. It should push forward to set. If you want to unset it, apply safe, open the gun, empty the chambers (just to be on the safe side), close the gun and squeeze the trigger. It will click back into its unset position without tripping the tumbler. You can do this in the field merely by applying safe and squeezing the trigger, of course, but if you empty the gun first it all feels so much less... rash!
 
fantastic looking gun there PM which I hope gives you years of pleasure. Do let us know how you get on with it on your first outing :thumb:
 
seibassman7 said:
fantastic looking gun there PM which I hope gives you years of pleasure. Do let us know how you get on with it on your first outing :thumb:
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I may have a chance to sight it in on Saturday, but the main goal of that day is to do some actual stalking for once. Otherwise I'll be at Bisley on 4th January when I can definitely zero it with my box of S&B 140gr rounds. All of that being a prelude to the 10th January when, courtesy of a generous member of this site, I shall start the day with an attempt at a muntjac stalk, before then having a day of roughshooting, all with the same gun. Hopefully that should make for a great photographic tableau at then end of the day. Although it would be more likely to end successfully if I could sort out this right barrel mystery.

I'm also in touch with a couple of companies about making me bespoke little gunslip to carry this around broken down.
 
That's a very smart looking gun. The mounts alone are worth what you paid for the entire rig. Looks like a 1970s era.

I like a German #1 post with a horizontal crosshair. The sharp post really does permit some very precision aiming, and the crosswire are very helpful for lining up in running came.

Minor pitting won't mean a thing with today's shot column contained in a plastic wad and sleeve.

A soft slip which would hold the scope and some ammuniton would be a nice thing to have. Let us know what you find on that.

Before you have a case built, look for a used or surplus new case. I know several dealers in the USA and UK who have new cases for shotguns, drillings and rifles, and used one from trade-ins. Some are canvas and leather, some full leather, and all a fraction of the cost of a new one. I am looking a buying one that will hold a combination gun with scope and accessories, and some O/U shotguns as well, taken down. PM me and I will send some photos and contact info, as many are not advertised online. I can post some photos here if others are interested. I even have some with Sauer drillings in them.
 
You have to be happy with that. Take it on Saturday and have a good play with it. You'll probably find it shoots pretty close to zero. Shoot slowly and let the barrel cool for a good few minutes between shots. Take a firm grasp of the fore end and rest that back of your hand on a rest. And forget all the shooting techniques of bipod etc. Keep it firmly held in and it will reward you. And don't expect really tiny small groups and be able shoot out to 500 yds. But you will be able to hit the boiler room of any UK deer out to ranges at which you want to shoot them.

Re the firing mechanism not working for the right barrel, its probably been stored for a good long while and it's somewhat gummed up inside. Nothing that your friends down at William Evans shouldn't be able to sort - just needs a bit of cleaning.

And theres lost more about these Sauer drillings on Accuratereloading.com and nitroexpress.com.

Have fun.
 
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