Should you back a solid all-rounder or a specialist bolter? Alex Flint investigates
Superb guns for taking on clays
Krieghoff is perhaps not a name well-known to many of our readers, with a lineage far more closely related to hunting rifles and shotguns built for competition. Founded as Sempert & Krieghoff, the firm has been building hunting guns at its home on the River Danube in the southern German city of Ulm since 1886. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the firm began to add competition shotguns to its lineup and has since built up a fearsome reputation for producing superb guns for taking on clays. Given the bespoke nature of both premium hunting guns and competition shotguns, it should perhaps not come as a complete surprise this Teutonic gunmaker likes to offer a buyer the opportunity to add a few extras to their purchases.
K-20 for field and clay ground
The K-20 on test this month is a 20 bore gun Krieghoff suggests could be used both in the field and on the clay ground and has much in common with its big brother, the K-80. Visually, the gun is quite arresting thanks to several unusual aspects of Krieghoff’s action.
The gun is shallow in the body, however the eye is immediately drawn to the highly unusual breech, where on top of the action a sliding latch keeps the gun’s barrel block engaged with the action face. The result of this clever engineering is a rather disconcerting gap where one would normally expect to see a flush fit. The gun does feel, however, absolutely solid and secure at all times, as well as being oddly pleasurable to watch in operation.
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