Shuffling the Gun Cabinet 8/7/23
It's happened - I've said goodbye to my Caesar Guerini, and gone full Krieghoff mode!
After my Dougall win, I've been mulling over whether to get a second K80 Supersport as a backup or second gun.
It would have to be as close a match as possible - same stock type, same stock and barrel length, same weight, but with multi-choke barrels (to give me options, and for when we can't use lead shot any more).
And the multi-chokes would have to be proper Krieghoff ones, not Teagues.
You might be asking, "Why are you using a Supersport for trap??"
The simple answer is because they handle so well, and feel so good to shoot.
Each Supersport is properly balanced before leaving the factory, and when you hold one in your hands it feels like the weight is spread through all of the gun, unlike with other more mass-produced makes such as Brownings that tend to come with either all the weight up front, or in the stock.
It wasn't a simple decision - second-hand Krieghoff's are still seriously expensive!
The only way I could do it would be to part-ex my Invictus - which I still felt quite attached to - and even then, whatever was left to pay had to be an amount I could manage.
The Invictus is a huge amount of gun for the price - excellent mechanically, superb shot patterns, forgiving to shoot, and one of the prettiest laser-engraved actions you can get.
Mine had been with me since before Fauxdegla in 2021 when I shot for England the last time, and since then I've shot some serious scores with it (including a 300).
Keeping it as my spare gun was certainly not a bad idea by any means, and one that I gave serious weight to.
But the success at Bywell had come with the K80, and now that I've used that one for a while, I can tell that there's a difference between them.
The K80 is more refined, better balanced, handles superbly, has a much better grip radius to suit the size of my hands (it doesn't feel like my fingers are scrunched together), is incredibly smooth to shoot, patterns well regardless of what cartridges it feeds on, and simply suits me better.
It's definitely the way to go if I want to build on my Dougall win and improve going forward.
However, I will gladly go on record and say that the Invictus is a fantastic package, and in my opinion, is streets ahead of anything else available new in it's price bracket.
So, while not having fully decided what I was going to do, I was at least looking for a viable candidate to interview for the replacement role.
Guntrader has quite a few Supersports listed, but the prices escalate faster than BP's profit figures, and anything with a hint of non-standard engraving was completely off the table.
However, I was aware that a certain Mr Julian Fairburn at Coombe Farm Sporting had a few second hand K80s on the shelf, so I paid him a visit.
Julian’s domain - Coombe Farm Sporting near Crewkerne, Somerset
One was a rather pretty looking Parcours with some lovely wood on it choked at 5/8 and 7/8, and with a price tag of £15,500.
Another was a Supersport with a gold-bordered case hardened action, and a new high-grade wood set with an adjustable comb Parcours stock (the new model configuration) - for £16,995.
Both of those were waaaaaayyy beyond my budget (as well as not fitting the spec I was after), although the Supersport fitted reasonably well (even if it was a bit short in the stock).
A third option was a 30 inch barrelled trap variant with an early pattern trap stock (dead straight parallel comb monte-carlo with no pitch at all) and 3/4 and Full fixed chokes (which was no good either).
That left one more, and the reason I'd made the trip in the first place - a 32" barrelled K80 Supersport with a monte-carlo stock, tapered-rib barrels, factory multi-chokes - and a price tag of £6750 (very few K80s available for less than this!).
My Invictus (bottom), and the potential new purchase (top).
At first glance, it had great promise - the stock length was within a quarter of an inch, and the weight was amazingly within 3 ounces!
Julian has a rather fancy jig for measuring the stock dimensions on a gun you need to know for gun fitting, and I had no hesitation in measuring and recording everything on the Dougall winning gun for future reference.
My fixed choke Kreighoff in the fancy measuring jig (I want one of these!)
Measuring the cast and drop at the front of the comb…
… and at the rear (the bump).
The cast at the heel (top of the pad)…
… and at the toe (bottom of the pad).
The pitch angle.
Then, it was time to see if I could set the potential new candidate up to be the same - and that's where I immediately found a problem.
The adjustable stock on my fixed choke K80 is an Alan Rhone one, and it has different adjustment hardware on it than the stocks that come from the Krieghoff factory.
The holes in the comb are elongated, and make it possible to change the angle relative to the rest of the stock, so you can have anything from a parallel comb (as I have) through to something entirely inappropriate that would smash your face with every shot (if that's your thing).
The Alan Rhone comb.
But on the other Supersport, the holes are a snug fit on the posts, and any adjustment other than straight up and down is impossible as it is.
The Krieghoff factory comb.
I highlighted this predicament to Julian, who had a brainwave - would the comb from mine fit the other one?
No, the posts were a different distance apart.
Then he reminded me that I have access to a machine shop with milling machines, and it wouldn't be at all difficult to modify the holes to allow the comb to tilt.
I thought that wouldn't be possible with the position of the height screws - until I realised that the metal would be taken from the opposite side of the holes, so that ceased to be an issue.
Overlaying both guns on top of each other had already confirmed that the pitch was the same, so the next question was the cast on the pad.
Early Krieghoffs have none - the centre of the top and bottom of the pad are dead in line with the rib (and I have no idea what possessed them to do that for so long!).
Looking down the gun from the muzzle end showed that the stock might have some cast - until the jig said otherwise.
Then I looked closer, and the stock does have some right hand cast, but the pad has been shaped to make it look like it has none - but either way there's no issue, because I have a Jones Adjuster I can fit to offset the pad about 8mm to the right, and twist it around to fit my shoulder pocket.
These are brilliant - and are a fraction of the cost of a new stock!
So the only thing left to find out was how many hard-earned tokens I would have to part with to do the deal (and at this point I was still not 100% sure if I wanted to do it!).
Surprisingly, the number was less than I was expecting, and I had enough saved up, so with the deal being good and the gun so close to what I was looking for, I weighed the options and decided to go ahead (though now I have to start building the savings pot again!).
In fact, I think I've found a bit of a gem.
It's been very well looked after, has almost a full set of chokes, and the Americase it comes in will take an extra set of 30" barrels as well as the 32" ones on the gun - new, that case alone will set you back around £1000!
Not far off a full set!
The two-barrel-set case was a nice surprise!
And how about this for icing on the cake?
The serial number of my fixed choke Krieghoff is 010432.
The serial number of the new one is 010402 - only 30 apart!!
They could well have been on the production line at the same time, and perhaps the actions were even made from the same batch of steel!
Julian said they were like twins - they practically are!
So all in all, I'm pretty happy with the deal.
Thank you Julian, a pleasure as always.
The gun won't be making it's debut on the shooting line just yet because it will take a while to make the modifications, and I'm pretty certain I will need to change the no. 4 hanger that's on it to a no. 6 (I'll have to pattern test the gun to be sure about that), but once that's all done, I'll be putting it through it's paces as soon as I can.
Stay tuned if you'd like to see some of the transformation process, and what the end results are!