The 8x75RS was designed by the german DWM under a requirement of Berhs Waffenwerke, Shul. It was introduced circa 1907 and it is based on the 9.3x74R case. As I said in an older post, the 8x75RS is now standard offering for Krieghoffs doubles, single shots and drillings, as well as for Blasers (S2, K95, BBF) and Heyms (80, 88, etc.). It is also chambered in new fine guns ( peter hofer ).

I bought my Krieghoff double 8x75 RS before the summer of 2005 and I used it with open sights during the driven hunts (monterías) season of 2005-2006 (October to February). I finished the season very pleased with the combination of rifle and cartridge. Some hunters here in Spain, and I agree with them, think that a 180 to 200 grains partition type bullet with soft first body (i.e. Nosler Partition, RWS DK, Sologne GPA) moving at muzzle velocity higher than 790 m/s (2,600 f/s) makes a good balance for Spanish (Centre and South) driven hunts, when game (wild boar and red deer mainly, mouflon and fallow deer occasionally) just weight 30 to 160 kg (66 to 330 pounds) but must be shot while running at speed fully pumped of adrenaline pursued by packs of dogs ( rehalas ) formed by hounds ( sabuesos and podencos) and bulldogs (alanos, mastines and now argentine dogos as well).

Although shooting in montería usually means short distance quick shots made using the window offered in dense cover by a narrow rough forest way ( cortadero ), which game cross running for its life, longer shots are sometimes possible. In order to facilitate such longer shots and, moreover, to prepare myself and the rifle for using it on stalking (in Spain and hopefully on plains game in Africa), I put a Nickel Magnum 1.5-6x30 variable riflescope on top of my Krieghoff ( Nickel ) once the 2005-2006 season ended.

My previous open sights regulation gone with the added weight. But after some work with the regulating device that the Krieghoff Classic is provided with (a screw between barrels), I eventually managed to regulate it again, now for the scope, with Sologne GPA ( GPA bullet ) factory load; 196 grains at 836 m/s (2,740 f/s).

The new 2006-2007 season had to start for me on Sunday October 22, and three days before I went to the shooting range to verify regulation. Here it is the target at 50 meters (55 yd) following a R-L (D-I), R-L sequence. All seemed to look fine.

foto 1

And then the great first day of the season arrived. The montería was in a fantastic property in Ciudad Real province, bordering Cabañeros National Park, full of lush pastures, mountain ranges and massifs covered in forests and Mediterranean scrub. When we came to our position, a 10 to 12 meters (33 to 39 ft) wide cortadero within a dense covered mount slope looking at the Estena river, I thought “ops! perhaps the worst place to use my new scope for the first time”. Additionally, it was raining quite hard and a high wind often blew, thus reducing our chance to hear game when approaching. Nevertheless, my 9 years old son an I were absolutely happy and ready for the events to come.

First game we saw were a group of three red deer when they crossed the cortadero at full speed. My son yelled “Dad, the second one!” meaning that second in the running stag row was clearly the biggest. I fired the second twice but I missed at no more than 15 meters (49 ft). I was not really able to correctly aim at the target through the scope (2x) doing the swing needed to hunt running big game (in fact, a swing quite similar to bird shooting). I felt certainly disappointed because it looked like a nice trophy but, anyway, things were just starting.

After some does rushed around, a stag walked through the cortadero and suddenly stopped. I fired immediately but no reaction of the buck was observed, disappearing from view in the cover. I could not believe my miss (this stag was afterwards found dead by the hounds 200 meters away with a lung shot, back from my intended aiming point below the shoulder and above the heart).

Losing rapidly my self-confidence, the third hunting event was a rush of three bucks too. This time I hesitated to fire because all of them looked small to me but nevertheless I fired at the third, ... and I missed. Once again I did not do the swing as it must be done.

Completely frustrated I began to prepare myself for a zero game first montería , and the worst thing was that my son started to grumble “Dad, what are you doing?”. While I was thinking what to answer I saw out of the corner of my eye a wild boar crossing the cortadero at top speed. I fired instinctively and I felt that the boar shrank while running. Fortunately enough my son felt the same and both of us thought that perhaps we could avoid the zero score.

The sound of the wild boar’s run was still in the air when we heard a new run. A stag followed by a doe. Being far more relaxed, I was this time rapid enough for two shots properly swung (DR raison d´être!). With second shot the stag clearly lost support on his right front leg.

The montería ended and we found the wild boar (a male with representative tusks) and the red stag 15 meters (49 ft) away from our position, both with quite well placed shots on the shoulder. Once I did my job the double and the long 8 (I like this name, thank you 400NitroExpress) did their job too.

fotos 2, 3

The stag has a very nice 15 points antlers and thus what began as a kind of nightmare became a wonderful day. Even more, 2005 was, and 2006 was being, really dry years in Spain. Here we were needing rain desperately. On Sunday 22 it rained cats and dogs. Fine.

Best regards,

Long 8R (former 8x75RS, but I forgot my password and have changed my e-mail adress)