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“One of the best survival guns you could ever want.” Can someone please explain to me how that works? The ad copy from Shooting Industry magazine explains that “With a .410 under and a .22 LR over, you can put meat in your own stew [no fair putting meat in someone else’s, apparently] or just plink away at an empty Dinty Moore stew can after dinner. [Dinty Moore, Dinty Moore is not in this post]. Whether you shoot for survival or for revival [Praise God], the new Savage Model 42 has you covered [so to speak]. Also available in .22 mag and .410.” As for Savage’s claim that it’s “fun as hell,” hell yes. I guess.

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33 COMMENTS

    • savage made that version, along with the much more usefule 22lr/20ga,and the 223/12 ga. they didn’t sell well.
      a load of combination guns with 12 ga/7.62x 39 ,12ga/308, and others are sold by EAA , they are the biakal model mp94 . http://www.eaacorp.com/
      there are a buncjh on gunbroker. the 12ga/223 might be useful for varmits.

        • Baikal in russia makes the 22/410. That was the gun used in the show “out of the wild, Alaska”. This type of combination gun is just about perfect for a survival weapon.

          22 and 410 ammo can be carried in abundance and you’ll see a lot more small game than you will big game.With a 22 solid and a 410 slug I wouldn’t hesitate to go after deer in a real survival situation.

    • Look to Europe. The German gun makers produce guns like this, usually called “Drillings.” They’ll be a 12 or 20 ga shotgun barrel or pair of barrels, with a third tube in something from .223 up to 9.3×62. Some of the drillings become kinda heavy… and very expensive.

      But you can find used ones if you look around.

  3. They used a gun just like this one in “Out of the Wild” Alaska. It was mainly to shoot birds with the .410 barrel. It may be a survival gun, provided you can take it apart just like any other over/under and keep it in a backpack. Otherwise, you are probably better off with a Ruger 10/22 takedown.

    Perhaps if they offered additional barrel combinations in different calibers, such as 12 guage and .22 magnum, etc.

    I don’t see this is a fun plinking gun.

  4. My uncle bought a used Over/ Under in 22 and 20 gauge when I was a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. Spent a few seasons dove hunting with that gun and loved it almost as much as the .410 Stevens single shot that I learned on. The biggest issue we had was only one barrel could be zeroed, and the other would shot as much as a foot or two off target at 40 yards. Sure was a beautiful gun though.

  6. Nice to see, but if they want to hit the innovative sweet spot, they need .17HMR.

    I keep hearing that 16ga is the shotgun optimum, but I could live with 20ga. Varminting and waterfowl action? Sounds pretty ideal.

    • The 16 gauge is just about extinct which is a shame. As a young hunter I felt that the 16 was the best all around shotgun available. It only really lacked in the goose blind.
      I think the fact that no one brought out a 3 inch chamber is what doomed it to a niche round. We americans love our horsepower.

      • + 1 yeah, th 16 was sweet. the guns that were built on an actual 16 frame were much handier than a 12. I think the death knell for the 16 was when makers started putting them on 12 gage frame. his made them too heavy and clumsy.

        • Bar none my favorite hunting gun was dad’s sweet sixteen belgium made browning A5. That gun had it all, I was heartbroken when dad sold it.

  7. In the mid ’70’s, the Savage 24 was one of the first guns that I ever lusted after. With 20ga below, and .22 LR on top, it was my constant camp companion. I can only imagine how many times the little Savage has filled my belly with Squirrel, Rabbit, Dove, and Quail.

    It shows its age now (so do I) , but it’s still in the safe.

  8. .22WMR/20ga or .223/12ga would both make great predator hunting rigs.

    That said…..sweet merciful crap! That thing is hideous.

    The old Model 24 was a handsome peice. This thing looks like they brought whoever designed the Liberator back from the dead and showed them the Matrix trilogy before setting them loose in the shop. Ugh.

    • I too had one in the mid-70s as a pre-teen. Traded a .303 Enfield ($80 when it that was 25 hours of min wage) for it. Kept it in the saddle holster on my motorcycle. Shot it often as .22 and .410 were dirt cheap compared to .303.

      Just borrowed a 7mm Rem Mag to deer hunt with.

  14. I have a model 24 with .22 over 20Ga and I prefer it for almost everything except goose. It has been in the family for over 40 years and still works flawlessly. It comes to the shoulder perfectly for me. It is scoped most of the time and when zeroed for the .22 the slug barrel shoots Winchester slugs very consistently 4″ directly lower than the .22 barrel at 50 yds and well within deer accuracy out to 80 yds. Easy to compensate for. It doesn’t shoot Remington or Federal slugs very well. It has taken many deer. I would never buy a .410 in anything. It is just too limited to waste time on when the 20Ga. does a much better job on everything including close decoy geese. I only wish I could find one in .22 mag over 12 ga. at a reasonable price. They are rare and seldom at a reasonable price. $700 to $ 900 is the going price for a mint condition model 24 in .22 mag over 12 ga. That would be a great hunter for everything from bunnies to geese and coyotes and bush hunting deer. The model 24 is the most used gun in my cabinet by far. My son’s are old enough to buy their own guns now and that .22 mag over 12Ga is starting to look good even at $1000 if necessary.

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