subject: Why Use A Combination Gun? [print this page] A combination gun is a shoulder-held firearm that contains at least two barrels, a rifle barrel and a shotgun barrel. These guns are often in an over and under make, meaning that one is over the other. They are not side-by-side. The side-by-side variations are known as cape guns.
A cape gun is a side-by-side version of a combination gun, and is typically European. German and Austrian cape guns have the rifle barrel on the right side and it is fired by the front trigger. British versions of this firearm position the rifle barrel on the left. These were at one time popular in southern Africa where a wide variety of game could be encountered.
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 smooth-bore barrel to line up with a flintlock mechanism. Modern combination guns tend to resemble double-barreled shotguns and double rifles, and are almost universally break open designs.
Unlike double-barrelled shotguns and double rifles, where single selective or double triggers are used to allow rapid firing of both barrels, 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.
Since the combination gun has two different barrels, it uses two different types of ammunition. One barrel uses ammunition for a shotgun, and the other uses the ammunition of a rifle. These guns generally have two triggers, and selectors to switch each between shotgun and rifle.
Drillings cover a much broader range of shapes and configurations; two matching shotgun barrels and a rifle barrel, two matching rifle barrels and one shotgun barrel, two rifle barrels of different calibers (typically one rim-fire and one center-fire) and one shotgun barrel, three matching shotgun barrels or three matching rifle 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 center-fire rifle barrel centered on the bottom. A similar arrangement of a side-by-side shotgun with a rifle barrel centered on top, generally a .22 caliber rim-fire or .22 Hornet, was also fairly common.
Rarer were the drilling that used two rifle barrels and a single shotgun barrel. These were harder to make, since, like a double rifle, the rifle 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-barrelled shotgun barrels, which are used at shorter ranges with wide patterns of shot where a small misalignment won't be significant.
If the rifle barrels were the same caliber, then the three barrels were generally arranged in a triangle, both rifle barrels on top, or one rifle and the shotgun barrel on top (this being known as a cross-eyed drilling). If the rifle barrels differed in caliber, generally the layout would be an over/under using the shotgun and a center-fire rifle barrel, with a rim-fire rifle barrel mounted between and to one side. These configuration, with shotgun/center-fire/rim-fire barrels, are the most desirable configuration for modern collectors.
Combination guns are rarely seen in the United States, not because they don't work, but because we can have both a shotgun and a rifle at the same time, which is not the case in Europe. Europeans can only have a certain amount of firearms, so to make up for that, the combination gun gives them a shotgun and a rifle in one make. The higher weight of the guns may be viewed as a disadvantage, especially for firing a shot if situations where follow-through is required. As for the future, combination guns will always be an asset to the firearm community. It is a gun that has an array of uses and will continue to be needed.
