HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A combination gun is a
firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
that usually comprises at least one
rifled In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the proj ...
barrel and one smoothbore barrel, that is typically used with shot or some types of shotgun slug. Most have been
break-action Break action is a type of firearm action in which the barrel or barrels 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 requi ...
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 are 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 more difficult to extract from a break-action firearm.


Use

Combination guns have a long history in Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Africa that date back to the early days of 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 form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
, from deer to game birds, and the shooter can choose the barrel appropriate for the target in seconds. As a result, they are popular with gamekeepers 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), which used a set of barrels designed to rotate to allow either the rifled or smoothbore barrel to line up with a flintlock mechanism. Modern combination guns tend to resemble
double-barreled shotgun A double-barreled shotgun is a break-action shotgun with two parallel barrels, allowing two single shots to be fired in quick succession or simultaneously. Construction Modern double-barreled shotguns, often known as ''doubles'', are almost u ...
s and double-barreled rifles, and are almost universally break open designs. Combination guns generally have a selector that allows the user to choose which barrel will fire. Drillings with two shotgun barrels and one rifle barrel may 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 each between shotgun and rifle.


Layouts


Combination guns

Combination guns are over/under designs such as the Savage Model 24, usually with a rifled barrel over a smoothbore barrel.
Iron sights Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly ...
are commonly used for aiming the rifle, and the front sight alone is sufficient to point the shotgun.
Scope mount Scope mounts are used to attach telescopic sights or other types of sights to firearms. The scope sight itself is usually made for only one of two main types of mounts, which can be classified as ''scopes for ring mounts'' (for example a 30  ...
s are available for some designs. An interesting combination gun is the United States Air Force M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon and its civilian version, the Springfield Armory M6 Scout, an all-metal folding combination gun in .22 Hornet over
.410 bore The .410 bore is one of the smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available (along with the 9mm Flobert rimfire cartridge, and the less common .22 rimfire shot shell). A .410 bore shotgun loaded with shot shells is well suited for small g ...
or
.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...
over
.410 bore The .410 bore is one of the smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available (along with the 9mm Flobert rimfire cartridge, and the less common .22 rimfire shot shell). A .410 bore shotgun loaded with shot shells is well suited for small g ...
.


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 where a wide variety of game could be encountered. British versions are commonly chambered for the
.303 British The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...
service cartridge and a 12-gauge smoothbore barrel, with the rifled barrel positioned on the left. 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 in 9.3×72mmR and 16-gauge, as were commonly carried by the old gamekeepers, although they were chambered in a wide variety of rifle and shotgun cartridges.


Drillings

Drillings (Drilling: German for triplet) normally consists of two matching smoothbore barrels and a rifled barrel (german: Normaldrilling, common drilling), but may cover a much broader range of shapes and configurations: * Two matching rifled barrels and one smoothbore barrel * Two rifled barrels of different calibers (typically one rimfire, one centerfire) and one smoothbore barrel * Three matching smoothbore barrels * Three matching rifled barrels 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. A similar arrangement of a side-by-side shotgun with a rifled barrel centered on top, generally a .22 caliber rimfire 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 configuration, 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 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. An unusual but notable drilling is the
TP-82 The TP-82 (russian: ТП-82) was a triple-barrelled Soviet combination pistol 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 pi ...
, a short-barreled drilling pistol consisting of two 12.5 mm smoothbore barrels over a 5.45 mm rifled barrel with a detachable shoulder stock that also doubles as a machete. It was developed by the Soviet Union as a survival gun for their cosmonauts, and was in use from 1986 to 2006, when it was retired due to the fact that 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 barrels, a .22 caliber 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 tigers.The maharajah's gun
/ref>


See also

* Chiappa Double Badger *
Chiappa M6 Survival Gun The Chiappa M6 Survival Gun is an over and under combination gun that comes in four versions; with a 12 gauge or 20 gauge shotgun barrel over a .22 Long Rifle or .22 Magnum barrel. It has a similar appearance to the original M6 Aircrew Survival ...
* Chiappa Triple Crown * Flakvierling * LeMat Revolver * Marble Game Getter * Multiple-barrel firearm * Savage Model 24 * S&T Daewoo K11 * List of multiple-barrel firearms


Notes


References

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