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  1. #1

    Default Curiosity Question

    If the drilling existed, why would you need to invent a Cape gun? Other than for the number of barrels, what is the substantive difference, especially in terms of application?

  2. #2
    Moderator ikor's Avatar
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    Default Re: Curiosity Question

    My take on this has always been that the Drilling is primarily a shotgun that also has a rifle barrel attached while the Cape Gun was more a rifle with shotgun attached, but I might be wrong about that. I would certainly think that the Drilling would be a more expensive gun to build well, what with barrel regulation for three barrels, etc. Application-wise I would think they serve the same basic purpose, namely to have a means to take whatever game was scared up during a hunt...fowl, rabbits, or deer / bokke / pigs etc.
    Run Fast, Bite Hard!

  3. #3

    Default Re: Curiosity Question

    It is something to which I do not really have an answer but here is a suspicion on my part: the Cape gun was developed in part for men who would be hunting in heavy bush. So you would want one barrel for fowl and another for barrel for… Things like Cape Buffalo. Now while a drilling can be made to a reasonable calibre, I have seen Cape guns with the rifled barrel in something pretty big, because what stops a deer or a wild pig does not always do very well for a buffalo, an elephant or rhinoceros. So you need a bit of punch. And to hang a large calibre third barrel below two shotgun barrels is just not practically feasible. Of course you could do technically but it would be an awkward piece of kit to handle. So better to have two barrels in that instance as opposed to three. And of course, it is probably cheaper as well. That is my guess for now until somebody makes me wiser.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Curiosity Question

    I am speculating, but is the drilling not an Continental configuration. I can not recall seeing an English made one. The English guns were mostly agile fowling pieces and a drilling does not fit here.

    During this period, England was also the main supplier of guns to SA.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Curiosity Question

    Quote Originally Posted by corriedewilde View Post
    I am speculating, but is the drilling not an Continental configuration. I can not recall seeing an English made one. The English guns were mostly agile fowling pieces and a drilling does not fit here.

    During this period, England was also the main supplier of guns to SA.
    That may very well be a factor – that it was simply a variation of the existing English double gun. The drilling would have been a whole new field of endeavour for the English gunmakers – including the cheap Birmingham people.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Curiosity Question

    WZ, the only Cape gun that Ive come across was a .375 h&H on one side and 12ga the other. It was loaned to me for a few bushpig hunts in the early '90s by the farmer. It worked ok at short ranges. As for agile, hmm, not so sure. It had a pretty long barrel.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Curiosity Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Bushboy View Post
    WZ, the only Cape gun that Ive come across was a .375 h&H on one side and 12ga the other. It was loaned to me for a few bushpig hunts in the early '90s by the farmer. It worked ok at short ranges. As for agile, hmm, not so sure. It had a pretty long barrel.
    I have seen them in the old blackpowder calibres.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Curiosity Question

    A drilling has three barrels, no? So subtract on barrel cut build cost. And I think Cape guns were build cheaper that English Double. But I dont know, only Cape Gun Ive seen belonged to my grand father, not sure what it was chambered for. and it wasnt in great nick.

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