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GUN TEST | FIREARMS

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the muzzle attached to the lower barrel. All
you do is zero the lower barrel in the normal
way then adjust the point of impact (POI) of
the 22 tube to suit.
Literally speaking you bend the 22 barrel
in both planes to change the angle that the
bullet is launched. Don’t worry as the bullet
is fl uid to a degree when travelling down the
bore so there is no problem! The adjusters
are long/slim Allan-headed grub screws
locked by a threaded ring.

RIMMED OR RIMLESS?
For me the rifl ed barrels of a drilling need to
be of different calibres to make the gun as
practical as possible. Blaser offers a
reasonable choice with both rimmed (R) and
rimless options: side barrel – 22 Hornet,
222 Remington, 5.6x50 R magnum and
5.6x52 R. These last two being some of the
many fast and fl at .224” roe deer busting
cartridges the Germans love. I thought it odd
they don’t do it in 223 Rem! Main calibres

are – 6.5x55, 6.5x57 R, 7x57 RS, 7x65 R,

308 Win, 30-06, 30 R Blaser, 8x57 IRS

(rimmed) and the classic 9.3x74 R. The

shotgun tube is a 20-bore only with a 3”

chamber, which is lighter than a 12 yet still

offering a good payload! Originally Blaser

were planning to offer a multi-choke, however

they settled on a fi xed ½-choke instead.

When I fi rst saw the BD14 I instantly

liked it and asked to test one and I recall at

the time asking for 222 Rem/308 Win,

which seemed logical for the UK. No way; I

got 5.6x50 R Magnum and 7x57 R, neither

are mainstream but thought ammo would be

available; FOOL! These two did test both my

reloading skills and tolerance.

R-CALIBRES

You would be right thinking that rimmed

ammo is old hat; certainly in the UK!

However, they are ideal for a double rifl e and

seem to be more consistent than a rimless.

Also a lot of these rifl es are extract-only,

meaning manual removal from the action

and here the rim gives a bit more to get hold

of! Initial enquiries on both calibres were met

with a resounding ‘you must be kidding why

would we bother importing that?’ Fair

comment! Latter RUAG UK provided

some RWS 7x57 R, but the 5.6x50 R

Magnum totally eluded me, despite

being told some was coming.

So reloading was the only route, but I

could not get the rimmed dies I needed. It

then occurred to me that both calibres have

standard, rimless versions and the

dimensions are near identical. Hornady came

to the rescue with dies in the rimless

versions and Lee shell holders were

substituted with 303 British (#5) for the

7x57 R and a 357 Magnum (#1) the 5.6x50.

Norma came to my aid supplying cases in

each calibre. Data was Vihtavuori using N140

for both as follows: Sierra 140-grain Game

Winchester provided

a cross section of

20-bore ammo – slug,

buck and bird

Triple treat – here we see the layout

of the barrels: 6 o’clock main rifle

calibre, 12 o’clock 20-gauge tube and

9 o’clock the 22 centrefire option

I had a few hiccups with the

reloading but nothing I could

not overcome, data was from

Vihtavuori and I used N140 for

both calibres