I live in Prague, and my Father-in-law is a forest manager here in the Czech Republic. He basically takes care of the animals in the forest, culls them when necessary, etc. He needs to buy a new hunting rifle. Guns here are EXPENSIVE (like twice the price of the USA), so I thought that I would pick one up while I’m back in the States in April and give it to him as a Christmas/Birthday/??? present for the next 2 years. Only problem- he only wants a european design combo rifle. I’ve mainly seen them here- 12 gauge on top, .308 (or another deer load) on the bottom, break-action. I think I saw a Savage Arms rifle like that years ago- but it was a .22lr/20 gauge.
So, can anyone suggest one? He needs a 12 gauge/deer load (.223+). He has his eyes on one here that is over $900, so I am trying to beat that price (by a lot if possible).
Savage makes them currently in a .30 and 16 or 12 gauge over/under combo and they list for about $300 IIRC.
I had one years ago, and they’re decent guns, fairly light and easy to shoot. The break action makes them slow to reload, however, so unless you have deer slugs loaded or buckshot, it’s one shot, one kill time. Scope mounting was fairly easy, but I took it off after I realised I liked iron sights better and the shotgun part tended to make scope shooting impractical. US over-under combos tend to be rifle/shotgun, however.
Why does your dad want an over-under? In my experience, these aren’t good for much more than home defense or a survival-rifle scenario where you need load flexibility and need to cut weight. Alhough, you mention he’s a forest manager, so he might need the shotgun for other uses.
Over here, over/under combos are very common. Its a euro thang. It is useful- I was sitting in a blind waiting for boar, and a fox trotted out in front of me. I only had his 7.65, so I couldn’t very well justify blowing a fox into tiny pieces with that thing! pheasant, foxes and something else are in season at the same time that certain deer and boar are.
As for the one-shot of it- he don’t miss. He has been a forrest manager for 35 years. I am willing to bet he has shot more animals in that time than, than, than I can come up with an analogy for. The trophy room in their house has 2 full walls of floor to ceiling skull-cap racks of srnec antlers- the Czech equivalent of a roe-buck. I’d estimate 200? 250? And the last time he added a rack to the wall was 8 years ago. He hunts almost every day during full season, and a few times a week during off-season (for the weak/weird ones- the racks on the wall aren’t pretty- twisted, mis-shaped, etc. He culls the ones that they don’t want to reproduce). And this doesn’t even come close to all of the female deer, boar, Danek (spotted deer with moose-like antlers), Jelen (elk), foxes, pheasants, etc. etc. It is amazing how many animals this guy has shot.
And you want the rub of it all? Not one of them is his! This is still a semi-socialist country- every animal he shoots he has to take to a community freezer, and then buy the meat from the butcher! He gets to keep the antlers and the liver- that’s it.
So, end story, a combo is actually a pretty neat gun to have here. He needs to replace his because he has shot it so much he is afraid it will start to weaken in the next 5 years. He is upset about getting rid of it; he’s had it for 35 years. When mom-in-law said “It’s just a gun! Sell it and forget about it.” He replied “It’s just a gun that I have spent more time with than YOU!”
Yes, I do believe he slept on the couch that evening.
I would say those butt-ugly P.O.S. combo rifles are definitely only a Euro thing!! Mainly because Europeans don’t mind the ridiculous pump action.
I feel so sorry for you guys!!
Pump action? Break action. Ugly? His current one is nice- walnut with etchings. And P.O.S.? Well, then he shot a P.O.S. for 35 years that dropped more animals than you will EVER dream of!
Tomcat,
I have since visited the link and checked out the rifle you are talking about. Though I still would never get one of those, it is a little different from what I was picturing.
The weapon I was thinking of is made by Crossfire. It is an over/under, rifle/shotgun assault weapon. The rifle comes in a variety of calibers, but the .223 version will accept any common AR-15 style magazine.
I have never handled one of these, and I really don’t know that much about them. (Other than I do not like them.) I have only seen them in gun magazine advertisements at work.
I’ve always figured that both the rifle and shotgun actions worked off the same pump. That’s why I voiced my disgust toward pump action rifles. However, after checking the below links, I am not sure if that is accurate. One site claims it is a semi-auto rifle. The other claims “Both the rifle and shotgun actions are cocked and locked simultaneously as the pump is thrust forward – all the way forward.” It is still possible for BOTH claims to be correct. But I am just not sure if the rifle is semi-auto or not. Maybe someone else here will know. If it is semi-auto, that would change some of my prejudice toward it- but just some.
There is a picture of one at the bottom of this page: http://members.nbci.com/wapahani/smallm19.html
Try The Shotgun News (www.shotgunnews.com). The classified section is quite complete. Get the hard copy: It has far more listings.
You might also consider a ‘Drilling’, which is a double-barrel (side-by-side) shotgun(over) + rifle(under) combo, and is also an old Euro tradition. Trouble is, most Drilling are beautifully made, highly decorated works of art, and are priced as such.
