THE 12 GAUGE / .223 SET OF BARRELS

This would be used on the farm and nearby hills for going for a walk with the gun. Using the single barrel shotgun on rabbits and hares or birds - pigeons, ducks, crows etc. Or a scope for head shooting rabbits, hares, foxes, or sniping crows.

I always desired such a combination. And now really want to get it shooting. The set of barrels needed refitting and this has been done. So time to always use these sets of barrels.

FIRST OPTION

Now what I would like to TRY is swing aside / hinged type mounts for the .223.

I remember Dennis Foster writing about such a setup on his Tikka combo in the 1980's or 70's.

Weaver and Redfield used to make these. I don't believe they do now. Finding usuable ones second hand is probably close to impossible as they would almost all be on existing firearms.

Were they any good? Mixed reports. Some say they didn't return to zero properly. Others say they did.

For a .223 they need to return to zero, pretty spot on. ie head shoot a rabbit at 100m or a fox at 150 m.

With a hinge swing aside scope, would having a scope hanging on the side ruin any sort of balance for shooting the shotgun?

SECOND OPTION

Swing aside mounts do exist for AR15 type systems, but are designed for a signal ring, and for a magnification scope designed to work with red dot sights. And 30mm.

Would one or two of these work? Or is this an impossible solution?

Also the solution needs to be a bridge mount. Pushing two levers or buttons on a two piece mount would be two slow.

THIRD OPTION

Tikka bridge non-QD mounts. These have a knob to turn several times to loosen the base off the barrels.

IMO they are slow to put on and take off.

EWA also makes a very similar one. Not QD at all per reports as they need a tool to turn the knob to take off.

This is a possible solution, though not ideal. I have two sets of these on hand to use.

FOURTH OPTION

QD set of mounts. If a set could be found which can be used on the Tikka/Valmet.

Possibly a biut slow taking on and off. But if faster than the Valmet style mounts might be a solution.

FIFTH OPTION

Dot point sight. Not suitable. Nowhere near accurate enough for small game rifle shooting.

SIXTH OPTION

Variable scope. Use the shotgun with a variable scope on low pwer for the shotgun, and the higher power for the rifle.

With modern scopes, say a 1-6x or something close to 1x at the lower end for the scope.

I prefer shooting a .22 centrefire with at least a 8x scope though.

Don't really like a scope for a shotgun. But could give it a try.

A real compromise solution. A 1-6x or similar scope with suitable reticle, in the Tikka non-QD mounts. Can use the scope at 1x for the shotgun, 6x (prefer higher) for the rifle, OR put in on and off using the non-QD mounts when possible.

Guys, what do you think? Experiences, ideas, comments.