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I've got one in the same calibres as luv2safari. I've got a 1.5-6x42 Swarovski in EAW swing off mounts and have Briley choke tubes fitted. it is fairly heavy, around 9lbs without scope but the short barrels make it handle fairly quickly but I could imagine it may be a problem for upland game shooting. We don't have any bird shooting in NSW but I do as well on clays with it as i do with anything else.

I shoot reasonably brisk rifle ammo - about the same ballistivs as the 375 H&H Flanged and have been using it as a plinker. I set up two 6"x8" logs on top of the gate posts 110 yards away and hit them pretty well all the time from a sitting position, so accuracy is acceptable. I don't recollect what sort of groups I got on paper. A 22 rimfire insert in the shotgun barrel will allow head shooting rabbits to 60 yards.

I've only fired about 300 rounds of 9.3x74R, 500 rounds of 22 long rifle and a few hundred shot shells (I had an accident not long after I got it and am on crutches, which rather limits the clay target shooting, especially as my wife injured her arm and cannot load the clay thrower without my help) and its still as tight as it ever was.

Two minor problems - when I first got it the front trigger locked up. I contacted the first owner and he said he wasn't even aware it had a single set trigger. I sent it off to a European trained gunsmith who has a lot of experience with these guns and he found someone had turned the adjustment screw on the set trigger to the point where once it was set you couldn't get it to release. He also told me that the firing pin for the rifle barrel is very long and can jam if you dry fire it even once. He recommends leaving a fired case in the rifle chamber when shooting clays etc, in case the selector is accidentally moved and the rifle barrel fired rather than the shotgun.

I love mine and think it will be something I'll have 'til I die, but, it is a Merkel, not some custom made, light weight, Duralumin framed, engraved Ferlach drilling.

mike

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