Thread: Combo guns,

For your purposes, give it a shot (pun intended). The BRNO over/under combo guns are very well made, very accurate, and criminally undervalued (seem to be selling for $600 in Canada on a low day and you could buy one any day of the week for $800. Canadiangunnutz usually has one or two on the equipment exchange, and a WTB add will bring in more). The Tikka's also seem nice, but that's just from looking at them.
For shooting one or two shots and then letting the barrel cook, BRNO combo guns are fantastically accurate, and that's exactly what they're made for.

My only real complaint is that they're complex internally, so if you tend to hunt in the rain/slush/much or push bush, you aren't going to quickly pull it apart to dry out/clean while in camp. One solution to that is to work a fine wax along all the wood-metal joints to keep the water out as much as possible, then pull the wood off when you get home, flush the metal parts out with a water displacing solvent, then re-oil with a penetrating oil, and leave it disassembled to drip dry.

I personally prefer the BRNO over/unders to drillings. Drillings are almost too nice for my purposes - they cost a lot, they tend to almost be delicate (with three barrels they tend to go lighter on barrel profiles, making them vulnerable to dents), and often they're more complex internally because of their design and value. If I were taking a casual walk around the farm or hunting from a stationary blind it would be ok, but I wouldn't want to seriously hunt with one. This is my view as a person who loves drillings, combo, and cape guns deeply

Side by side cape guns are also an option, but they never shoot as well as their equivalent O/U versions. They do look cool though and the big bores weigh close to what an equivalent sxs shotgun does. If you tend to shoot within 100m the deer never need to know that you meant to hit it 30mm to the left of where you did, especially when it's a cape gun in .577 or 50-70.

My dream gun would be something like the savage model 24 in 308 and 12 gauge - keep it very simple, lightweight, single external hammer with barrel selector in the hammer.