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But success has also been built upon the versatility of the original American design. While it is long-lined and angular, the action has a very low profile, which retards felt recoil, and the sliding bolt makes changing barrels easy. A drawbolt, likewise, secures the stock, which simplifies fitting new wood. The upshot is a mutable, almost modular gun, competition proven and adaptable for any clay-target sport.
From the start of the ’60s through the early ’70s, the K-32 was the competition over-and-under for American-rules trap and skeet shooters. Then Perazzi came along. As the ’70s wore on, the racy Italian upstart began stealing market share in the US, and dominating international trap and skeet elsewhere. By late in the decade, Krieghoff inventory was stacking up in the States. The K-32 seemed stodgy and stale.
Only it wasn’t. By 1978 Krieghoff was consulting with America’s top trap and skeet shooters and was at work improving the old design—with a better, adjustable trigger, more ergonomic stock shapes, and a slew of new rib and barrel configurations, including the innovative “Unsingle” single-shot trap barrel. Dieter, born in 1950, earned an MBA from Saarbrücken University and joined the company in 1976, assisting the new gun’s development, especially its new trap and skeet stocks.
Krieghoff released the K-80 in 1980, and the trajectory of the firm has climbed since, especially after Dieter emigrated to North America in 1979, first to work with a Canadian importer and in 1980 to begin direct imports to America. “After this our sales in the US mushroomed,” he said.
Krieghoff continues to refine its gun, and a characteristic of its methodical approach to engineering means most of those improvements can be retrofitted to existing K-80s. “We can even ‘K-Eighterize’ all but the earliest K-32s,” said Dieter. “Our customers never feel their gun is obsolete, so they don’t go looking for a better mousetrap every couple years.”
Krieghoff uses high tech to design and manufacture components, then skilled hands to assemble them into guns. In a cavernous room singing with the scree of cutters machining steel, we watched actions aborning in a large Hermle CNC machine. Each basic frame takes about 90 minutes to make—instead of days as of old, and now they are made to tighter tolerances. Other CNC units were busy with monoblocs and internal components.
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The nation’s prowess in engineering and manufacturing—which at Krieghoff fuses high-tech machining with old-time Handwerk—lives up to its vaunted reputation. Moreover, Krieghoff’s business strategy is planned for the long run and executed with Germanic thoroughness.
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We were then off to see what Ralf Müller dubs “manual-facturing”—the assembly of precision-made components by Krieghoff’s craftsmen. At a long bench in the action shop, I watched Peter Moysisch rip a strip of emery cloth, place it on a diamond file, then make a single light stroke on the nose of a sear belonging to the gun’s famed mechanical selective single trigger. Peter fitted the part, checked the pull, removed it, and then made another stroke. And again. If you’ve never squeezed a K-gun’s trigger, you simply have to try one to understand that the accolades accorded it are well earned—and I know why.
Later we watched barrelmaker Andreas Morgan file and fit by hand side ribs to a set of Parcours tubes, check them repeatedly with a micrometer, then play a flame down them to tin them together. I’ve seen the same sort of careful craftwork at Holland & Holland.
“Our guns are difficult to make,” said Dieter. “But this gives us some protection—you can’t make a cheap knock-off.”
In America, Krieghoff International has 20 employees, 9 of them trained gunsmiths who can repair or otherwise customize guns as required. “We are staffed for fast service,” said Dieter.
Krieghoff International imports its guns through its Ottsville headquarters in Pennsylvania, but new guns are sold only through approved dealers (about 25), who are dispersed geographically and required to keep a healthy supply in stock. “My father used to say,” said Dieter, “you can’t sell from an empty wagon.”
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Krieghoff International forbids its dealers from deep discounting, tolerates no gray-market imports (Verboten!), and the factory will not make, nor will Dieter import, more guns than Ulm estimates it can sell in a year. “We want to supply the market adequately,” said Dieter, “not flood it.” If all of this sounds very un-Italian, it is. The upshot is that dealers can make a profit selling new guns, and used guns hold their values extraordinarily well. “Good resale prices keep shooters happy, and it makes them comfortable to buy a new gun.”
Since the ’80s, Krieghoff has assiduously courted the sporting clays market and has tailored its guns to excel in the sport. Many of the world’s champion sporting shots use Krieghoffs, and the company is aiming to penetrate the Olympic sports. “Win competitions,” said Dieter, “and shooters will follow.”
Because of their weight, K-guns have never really taken hold in the hunting market, but that’s changing. In 2012, Krieghoff introduced its Parcours model in 12-gauge, with trimmed-down wood and re-profiled, light, dynamic barrels, which shave almost a pound off the finished gun. The response from wingshooters has been dramatic. In the UK, Krieghoff is now selling guns as pairs and trios for driven-game shooters (the Parcours with 32-inch barrels is a favorite for high pheasants).
Last year, Krieghoff released Parcours barrels in 20- and 28-gauge for its scaled-frame K-20s. At the factory I picked up one fitted with 28-gauge barrels. Wow—a revelation; the weight is between your hands, as it should be, but handling is dynamic and quick—a proper game gun.
Reaction to it has been highly positive, thanks in part to what Dieter calls, “a generational shift.” He explains: “The world now overwhelmingly prefers over-and-unders. Many new hunters are coming to hunting from sporting clays, so they know our name and reputation. Now we’ve got guns for them.”
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