A combination gun is a

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

that usually comprises at least one

rifled Rifling is the term for helical grooves machined into the internal surface of a firearms's barrel for imparting a spin to a projectile to improve its aerodynamic stability and accuracy. It is also the term (as a verb) for creating such groove ...

barrel and one

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. Some examples of smoothbore weapons are muskets, blunderbusses, and flintlock pistols. ...

barrel, that is typically used with

shot Shot may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Shot'' (album), by The Jesus Lizard *''Shot, Illusion, New God'', an EP by Gruntruck *'' Shot Rev 2.0'', a video album by The Sisters of Mercy * "Shot" (song), by The Rasmus * ''Shot'' (2017 ...

or some type of

shotgun slug A shotgun slug is a heavy projectile (a slug) made of lead, copper, or other material and fired from a shotgun. Slugs are designed for hunting large game, and other uses, particularly in areas near human population where their short range and slo ...

. Most have been

break-action Break action is a type of firearm action in which the barrel(s) are hinged much like a door and rotate perpendicularly to the bore axis to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of cartridges. A separate operation may be required for ...

guns, although there have been other designs as well. Combination guns using one rifled and one smoothbore barrel are commonly found in an over-and-under configuration, while the side-by-side configuration is usually referred to as a cape gun. A combination gun with more than two barrels is called a (German for "triplet") with three barrels, a (German for "quadruplet") with four barrels, and a (German for "quintuplet") with five barrels. Combination guns generally use rimmed cartridges, as rimless cartridges are usually more difficult to extract from a break-action firearm.

Use

Combination guns have a long history in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa that date back to the early days of metallic cartridge firearms. These guns are almost exclusively hunting arms. The advantage of having a single firearm that can fire both cartridges designed for rifled and smoothbore barrels is that a single gun can be used to hunt a very wide variety of

game A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...

, from

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

to game birds, and the shooter can choose the barrel appropriate for the target in seconds. As a result, they are popular with

gamekeeper In the United Kingdom, a gamekeeper (often abbreviated to keeper) is a person who manages an area of countryside (e.g., areas of woodland, moorland, waterway or farmland) to make sure that there is enough Game (hunting), game for hunting, or fish ...

s who often need the flexibility of the combination gun during their activities.

Firing mechanisms

The earliest combination guns were called ''swivel guns'', (not to be confused with the more widely known small cannon that is mounted on a swiveling stand or fork and allows a wide range of motion) which used a set of barrels designed to rotate to allow either the

or the

barrel to line up with a

flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...

mechanism before firing. Modern combination guns tend to resemble

double-barreled shotgun A double-barreled shotgun, also known as a double shotgun, is a break-action shotgun with two parallel barrels, allowing two single shots that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Construction Modern double-barre ...

s and

double-barreled rifle The double rifle, also known as a double-barreled rifle, is a rifle with two barrels mounted parallel to each other that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Synonymous with big game hunting found primarily in Africa an ...

s, and are almost universally break open designs. Combination guns generally have a selector that allows the user to choose which barrel will fire. Three-barrel versions known as Drillings, are commonly found with two shotgun barrels and one rifle barrel, and generally have two triggers, one for each shotgun barrel, and a selector that will allow one trigger to fire the rifle barrel. Four-barrel versions known as Vierlings generally have two triggers, and selectors to switch between both the shotgun and rifle barrels.

Layouts

Combination guns

Combination guns are over/under designs such as the

Savage Model 24 The Savage Model 24 is an American made over-and-under combination gun manufactured by Savage Arms. The basic .22LR over .410 gauge model weighs 7 pounds, has 24-inch barrels and has an overall length of 41-inches. It may also be disassembled ...

, usually with a rifled barrel over a smoothbore barrel.

Iron sights Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons such as firearms, airguns, crossbows, and bows, or less commonly as a primitive finder sight for optical telescop ...

are commonly used for aiming the rifle, and the front sight alone is sufficient to point the shotgun.

Scope mount Scope mounts are rigid implements used to attach (typically) a telescopic sight or other types of optical sights onto a firearm. The mount can be made integral to the scope body (such as the Zeiss rail) or, more commonly, an external fitting t ...

s are available for some designs. An interesting combination gun is the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon The M6 aircrew survival weapon was a specially-made .22 Hornet over .410 bore combination gun issued to United States Air Force aircrews to help forage for food in the event of a plane crash. It was issued from 1952 until the early 1970s, in co ...

and its civilian version, the

Springfield Armory M6 Scout The Springfield Armory M6 Scout is a .22 Hornet over .410 bore combination gun that is virtually identical to the original M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon. It is also made in .22 Long Rifle over .410 bore and .22 Magnum over .410 bore. The Scouts ...

, an all-metal folding combination gun in .22 Hornet over .410 bore or .22 Long Rifle over .410 bore.

Cape guns

A cape gun is a side-by-side version of a combination gun and is typically European in origin. These were at one time popular in

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

, where a wide variety of game could be encountered. British versions are commonly chambered for the .303 British service cartridge and a 12-gauge smoothbore barrel, with the rifled barrel positioned on the left. The German and Austrian cape guns have the rifled barrel on the right side, which is fired by the front trigger. The front trigger is usually a set trigger as well. The German and Austrian versions are commonly chambered for 9.3×72mmR or

9.3×74mmR 9.3×74mm R (designated as the 9,3 x 74 R by the C.I.P.)Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives,9,3 × 74 R", www.cip-bobp.org/en/tdcc', retrieved 15 December 2018. is a medium-bore Cartridge (firearms), ca ...

rifle cartridges and 16-gauge or 12-gauge

shotshell A shotgun cartridge, shotshell, or shell is a type of rimmed, cylindrical (straight-walled) ammunition used specifically in shotguns. It is typically loaded with numerous small, spherical sub-projectiles called shot. Shotguns typically use a ...

s, as they were commonly carried by the old

s, although they were usually chambered in a much wider variety of available rifle and shotgun cartridges.

Drillings

Drillings ("drilling" being German for "triplet") normally consist of two matching smoothbore barrels and a rifled barrel (, common drilling), but may cover a much broader range of shapes and configurations. Since drillings were generally made by small manufacturers, each maker would pick whichever layout they preferred, or whatever layout the customer ordered. The most common layout was a side-by-side shotgun with a centerfire rifled barrel centered on the bottom, such as the

M30 Luftwaffe Drilling The M30 Luftwaffe Drilling ("triple") was a survival weapon issued to Luftwaffe pilots during World War II. It was used by airmen operating in Northern Africa. The M30 was intended to be used for hunting and self-defense against a variety of natur ...

. A similar arrangement of a side-by-side shotgun with a rifled barrel centered on top, generally a .22 rimfire caliber or .22 Hornet, was also fairly common. Rarer were the drillings that used two rifled barrels and a single smoothbore barrel. These were harder to make, since, like a double-barreled rifle, the rifled barrels must be very carefully ''regulated'', that is, aligned during manufacture to shoot to the same point of aim at a given distance. This requires more precision than regulation of double-barreled shotgun barrels, which are used at shorter ranges with wide patterns of shot where a small misalignment won't be significant. If the rifled barrels were the same caliber, then the three barrels were generally arranged in a triangle, both rifled barrels on top or one rifled and the smoothbore barrel on top (this being known as a ''cross-eyed drilling''). If the rifled barrels differed in caliber, generally the layout would be an over/under using the shotgun and a centerfire rifle barrel, with a rimfire rifle barrel mounted between and to one side. These configurations, with shotgun/centerfire/rimfire barrels, are the most desirable configuration for modern collectors. The triple-barrel shotgun is the rarest configuration, and arguably is an odd variant of a double-barreled shotgun rather than a drilling since it lacks the rifle/shotgun combination that all the other drillings have. The triple-barrel shotgun is generally laid out like a side-by-side shotgun, with the third barrel centered and below the other two. Although, the

Chiappa Triple Crown The Chiappa Triple Crown is a family of Italian-made triple-barrel, break-action shotguns, chambered in 12-gauge, 20-gauge, 28-gauge, and .410 bore. The barrels have a triangular arrangement with one on top and two below. This gives the Tripl ...

has a triangular arrangement with one on top and two below. This gives the Triple Crown a single-barrel sight picture. The barrels are all the same

gauge Gauge ( ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, especia ...

. An unusual but notable drilling is the

TP-82 The TP-82 () is an out-of-service triple-barreled Soviet combination gun carried by cosmonauts on space missions. It was intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness. Features The TP-82 c ...

, a short-barreled drilling pistol consisting of two 12.5x70mm (40-gauge) smoothbore shotgun barrels over a 5.45x39mm rifle barrel with a detachable shoulder stock that also doubled as a

machete A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...

. It was developed by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

as a survival gun for their

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s, and was in use from 1986 to 2006, when it was retired because the unique ammunition it uses had degraded too far to be reliable.

Vierlings

Vierlings ("vierling" being German for "quadruplet") generally consist of two matching smoothbore shotgun barrels, a .22 rimfire rifled barrel, and a centerfire rifled barrel. Although, they can come in a variety of configurations. Vierlings are quite rare and are almost always custom-made for the high-end commercial market. One example was the four-barreled Lancaster carbine, originally designed for the Maharajah of Rewa for hunting

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

s.The maharajah's gun
/ref>

Fünflings

Fünfling ("fünfling" being German for "quintuplet"), is an extremely rare type of combination gun because of its greater complexity of joining a compilation of five separate smoothbore and rifled barrels together within a single firearm design. Some of these layouts include a single smoothbore shotgun barrel on top of two rifle barrel calibers in a side-by-side and over-and-under configuration or two smoothbore shotgun barrels in a side-by-side configuration with three rifle barrel calibers between them that are stacked vertically in an over-and-under configuration.

Notes

References

* Fjestad, S. P. ''Blue Book of Gun Values'', 13th Edition. {{Authority control Hunting rifles Multiple-barrel firearms Shotguns Combination weapons Combination guns

Use