I starting shooting a Krieghoff back in 2007. I had started my shooting career with a Winchester 6500, a 12-bore with 28in barrels. My husband John wanted a new left handed K80 Super Sporter, so we took a trip to visit Haggis Hartman at West Country Guns – where I fell in love with a 30in K80 Super Sporter myself. This particular gun had apparently been in a house fire, but the K80 action had stood up to the hellish temperatures and survived. It had been fitted with new wood and a new (or possibly used) set of barrels, and it worked a treat. It just shows that the build of a Krieghoff is second to none.
Krieghoff started life back in 1886 in the town of Ulm, Germany, and was founded by Sempert and Krieghoff. They produced guns for more than 60 years before exploring the opportunity to add competition guns to their line-up in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Since then they’ve become a household name for shooters across the world. The UK has a large following, and the brand is massive in the USA.
Despite having bought that first Krieghoff, I shot Zoli for around seven years. Then, in 2016, I decided I needed a change, and bought myself a Krieghoff K80 Super Sporter. I have shot the K80 Super Sporter in three barrel configurations, but this one had 32in step rib barrels, multichoked, with a 12mm to 8mm rib. The gun was not the lightest thing I’ve ever had, weighing 9lb 8oz – but we balanced it up and in the shoulder it felt superb.