Over the years, i've owned several drillings and shot even more... To me a drilling is a "hunting" weapon, and that means it has to be light and handy. I want my drilling no heavier than 7 pounds, and i want it chambered for a rimmed cartridge. It needs to have enough bullet energy and penetration to cleanly kill big game at 300 yards. I also want it to have a short insert bbl., to quietly harvest small game with. I want it to have a good quality scope in "claw" mounts for those longer shots. I prefer claw mounts because they always come back to zero, and you never see them when bird shooting.

12ga. drillings are heavy and clunky, 16ga. drillings are built on 20ga. frames, so they are much lighter. I prefer the 16ga over a 20ga., and ammo is never a problem for me. When i find a load that i like in my gun, i buy up enough "ahead of time" to last me a few years. If i need more, i also buy it ahead of time too, so i don't have to go looking for it the day i need it... Also it's not hard to find adapters to shoot 20ga ammo in a 16ga gun...

My choise for the rifle cartridge is 8x57jrs. It will cleanly take big game at 300 yards without having too much recoil in a 7 pound gun. I'm a big fan of Nosler partition bullets, and they make an excelent 200 grain NP in .323"

I'm also a big fan of Keirghoff rim fire insert bbls... They are VERY accurate and always go back to zero when put into the shot bbl...

Anyway, here's my choise for the perfect drilling. It's a Krieghoff Semper made in 1935, it weighs just under 7 pounds.

It's chambered for 8x57jrs, as it has the "S" bore of .323", the 16ga. chambers are 2-3/4"... I have two scopes for it, both in claw mounts... First, a B&L 1.5x6 as seen in the above pict., and the second scope is an Zeiss 3x9.

The longest shot i've taken was at a coyote. It was VERY close to 300 yards away, i pulled my scope out of my pack, snapped in on, and took the shot. The coyote ran about 30 yards and piled up with a solid hit through the ribs...

I have two Krieghoff insert bbls for my drilling, both are short enough to easily go into my pack, or in a pocket. One is chambered for 22lr and the other 22 Win. Mag...

They are VERY accurate and have been very useful. I shot this fox a couple weeks ago useing the lr insert...

I also had screw in choke tubes made for my drilling...

I can use open chokes for close shots when grouse hunting, or screw in the tighter chokes for turkey hunting, like this tom i harvested...

I'm very happy with the 200NP's i load in my 8x57jrs, and i've taken much big game with them, from moose and bear on down to deer, Javolina and much small game all for my freezer...

I can't tell you how much pleasure my Semper has given me over the 25 years i have owned it, and i wouldn't trade it for any other drilling i have seen!

DM