GR Krieghoff Essencia

COURTESY OF KRIEGHOFF
Gun Review
BRUCE BUCK
After the second bottle had been
opened, dinner discussion turned
to “best” guns and who makes
them today. We were at the most recent
Vintage Cup and had been wallowing in
the finest doubles extant. Two of our
party suggested that these days the Germans
are making better English guns than
the English. Although the next evening
my dinner table full of English gunmakers
declined to share that opinion, there’s
no doubt that the Germans are producing
some stunning classic game guns.
In the past I’d always felt that German
and Austrian guns were built like bank
vaults—delightfully complex, yet visually
odd. I could never get past the heavy
engraving of open-mouthed ducks or the
rifle-like stock configurations
complete
with sling swivels
and cheekpieces.
I still can’t
fully forgive the
country’s gunmakers
for inflicting
the Schnabel
forend on us.
It was never a question of quality; it
was a question of taste. German makers
built for German customers and gave
them what they wanted. But so many others
worldwide admired the British gamegun
paradigm that it was only a matter of
time until some German craftsmen turned
their substantial abilities to producing
guns for that market too. One only has to
look at the current production of Hartmann
& Weiss or German native Philipp
Krieghoff Essencia
Ollendorff to find British-style sidelock
game guns the equal of any.
And then there is Krieghoff. In America
we think of the German K-80 over/under
as a competition gun. It is the most desired
O/U for American-style skeet and is
extremely popular for ATA trap. It also
picked up speed in sporting clays by winning
the 2006 World FITASC championship
in the able hands of Brit Ben Husthwaite.
Heavy, durable, extremely softshooting
and with the best trigger in the
business, it has come to epitomize what
many Americans want for
domestic
clay
Beautiful lines,
gorgeous coloring,
excellent performance—the Essencia is what a
shotgun is all about.
target games. A chauvinist
might note that this isn’t surprising,
as the K-80 stems from the
Remington Model 32, but that’s
unfair, as today’s K-80 is greatly
improved.
Although Americans think of
Krieghoffs in terms of clay target
guns, it is very different on the
Continent. There, Krieghoff markets
a variety of consummately
Germanic double- and treble-bar-
reled rifle/shotgun combination guns as
well as single-barreled rifles and even
some new Parabellum Luger-style pistols.
In the early ’90s Krieghoff commissioned
a single boxlock from Ivano Tanfoglio
at Ferlib to test the interest in marketing
a side-by-side game gun, but it
went no further for a decade. The introduction
of the Essencia side-by-side sidelock
at the 2003 Vintage Cup caught us
all by surprise. I was stunned when I first
saw it. How could
a company
whose aesthetics
centered about practical
slab-sided clays guns and
complex Drillings come up
with this smooth, seductive
sidelock classic? Shows you
what I know.
Steve Phillips, Krieghoff’s
director of sales,
told me that the Essencia
sidelock and its boxlock
sibling are both made in
Germany through a partnership
with German
master gunsmith Jens
Ziegenhahn. Ziegenhahn
is a fourth-generation gunmaker
and is well known
for his double rifles as
well as his classic custom
shotguns. At its introduction,
the Essencia received the
Shooting SportsmanAward as
an ideal custom-fitted game
gun at the Gold Medal Concours.
I was impressed by the
gun, and when one became
available for testing, I snapped
it up.
But first, to keep my comments
and expectations in
perspective, I should mention
shootingsportsman.com 87

the bottom line. The current list price of
the Essencia sidelock before options is
$24,950. It comes in 12 gauge with 28" or
30" barrels or in 16, 20 or 28 gauge—all
on a 20-gauge receiver—with 26.5", 28"
or 30" barrels. Our test gun was a 28" 20gauge
with double triggers. This price
range puts it significantly above the runof-the-mill
side-by-sides and significantly
below the British “best” and top Italian
efforts. For those who choose to invest
$25K in a field gun, it’s not so much a
question of absolute cost as it is relative
value. If $2,500 will buy a nice 20-gauge
side-by-side, what makes another 20-gauge
side-by-side worth 10 times as much?
Well, let me tell you.
The Essencia action is a seven-pin
back-action sidelock. Back action means
the mainspring faces rearward as opposed
to the forward-facing spring of a bar action.
A back-action design allows the action
bar to be rounded for a slimmer,
smoother look. The Essencia’s interior
design is a little different than what I’m
used to, but it is certainly clean and well
executed. All the springs are leaf. The
locks and bridles are case colored, the
springs are polished and everything else
is gold plated. The firing pins are disk-set
for easy removal from the face of the
standing breech. The disks have the usual
twin holes for removal-tool purchase, but
each one also has a perfectly indexed set
screw as an extra Teutonic touch. The
sidelocks are screwdriver removable, but
the Krieghoff manual warns owners not
to try it themselves. Verboten! They say
that the locks and stock should be removed
only by factory-trained personnel.
Lockup is by the classic Purdey double
underbolt. The standing breech also is recessed
to accept what Krieghoff refers to
as a Purdey third bite for additional lateral
stability. The locking lumps that engage
the bolt do not protrude through the
bottom of the receiver—something that
some feel is the sign of a “better” gun—
but the bottom of the receiver is removable
via a small and a large screw-on
plate. The latter plate holds the triggers.
The hinge pin, with cap-screw access, is
replaceable. Cocking indicators are the
classic gold-washed tumbler pivot stubs
protruding through the sidelocks. Between
the pinheads and numerous screw
heads, the outside of the action is busy but
not visibly so, as many of the heads are
obscured by the case coloring. All screwhead
and plate-alignment seams on our
gun were flawlessly flush.
Our test gun came with gold-plated
double triggers. The front trigger is artic-
88 March/April 2007
ulated to save knuckle dinging. Pulls
were crisp and consistent at 4 3/4 pounds
front and 6 pounds rear. As the Essencia
is a bespoke gun, you can order whatever
pulls you wish. If you prefer a single
(non-selective) trigger, that is available for
an additional $1,295. The trigger guard
has rounded edges on both sides.
As important as the triggers are on any
gun, on a field gun a smoothly operating
safety is just as important. The safety action
on our gun had just the right feel to
it. The Essencia comes with your choice
of an automatic or manual safety. The
safety button has a high, aggressively
checkered bump. Your thumb will positively
not slip, but a lot of use will put a
hole in your glove.
The automatic ejectors appear to be the
tried-and-true Southgate system. Ejector
mating to the face of the breech showed
flawless machining. They functioned flawlessly
too, without needlessly hurling the
empties into the next time zone the way
some guns do.
Our test gun was one of the original prototypes.
It was a 20-gauge with 28" barrels
and 3" chambers. Forcing cones were of
normal length, unlike the lengthened cones
so long a feature on K-80 target guns. At
.624", the bores were slightly over the .615"
standard. The fixed chokes were of the conical
parallel type and were listed as Improved
Cylinder and Modified, but you can
order anything you want, including Briley
screw chokes, for an extra fee. The fixed
chokes were carefully cut, with the tighter
choke showing an increase in length of the
conical and parallel sections compared to
the more-open choke. It is this flexibility of
choke length that gives fixed chokes an advantage
over screw chokes, especially in
tighter constrictions. Many choke designers
feel that tighter chokes require longer cones
and parallels than more-open chokes. Fixed
chokes permit this extra length, whereas the
uniform lengths of screw chokes do not.
The Essencia manual suggests that if you
must use steel shot, use it in steel-approved
screw-choked barrels with Modified
or less. Surely a gun like this deserves a
more-benign nontoxic-shot load.
The barrel rib is flat, concave and slightly
raised. It’s a nice compromise between
the raised rib and the swamped game rib.
There’s a tasteful metal bead up front. The
rib surface is plain, with what seems to be
a slightly duller finish than the flawlessly
rust-blued barrels. It was all beautifully
done, with one exception. Our test gun
clearly showed the solder seam where the
main rib met the 2" stub rib at the breech
end. As our test gun had been shot a good
bit, I wouldn’t mention it except that I saw
the same seam exposed in some product
photos of another Essencia. The rest of the
gun was so exquisite that this flaw really
stood out.
The 20-gauge-frame Essencias can be
had with extra 16- or 28-gauge barrel/
forend sets for $8,950 each. Extra 20gauge
barrels are $6,950, because you
don’t need an extra forend. As an interesting
aside, the chambers for optional 28gauge
Essencia barrels are listed at 3".
The Krieghoff K-80 28-gauge sporter barrels
I once used had 3" chambers too. I am
unfamiliar with a 3" 28-gauge shell. Perhaps
it is something uniquely Teutonic.
What isn’t uniquely Teutonic is an appreciation
of gorgeous walnut. It’s always
difficult to describe the wood on a gun
like this, because you can order pretty
much what you want. The dimensions are
up to you, as they should be. The quality
of walnut on our sample was simply stunning.
I don’t know whether this was the
“Grade II” standard wood or the “Very
Best,” at an optional $1,700. I couldn’t
imagine someone ordering a $25K gun
and not springing for the best wood.
Checkering was a whole lot of LPI—
about as fine as you can get and still provide
a gripping surface. It was perfectly
cut, too, with no errors at the corners or
edges. Ditto on the checkered butt. The
stock was finished in Tru-Oil, as so many
of the best European stockmakers do.
Krieghoff advises that you rub down the
stock with a drop or two of Tru-Oil every
now and then to keep it fresh.
The forend is listed as a semi-beavertail,
but it is so “semi” that it could pass for a
splinter, with just a touch more depth in
front where the Anson pushbutton is. The
interior of the forend is finished to the same
level as the exterior. Even the visible parts
of the ejector mechanism are gold plated.
Which leads us to the gingerbread. The
action of the gun is available in coin silver
nitride or blue if you don’t wish the standard
case coloring. But if you don’t get the
case coloring, even your dog shouldn’t
come when you call. The Essencia’s case
coloring is stunning, exceptional, breathtaking.
The blending of vibrant blues,
straws, purples and other hues are beyond
description. I don’t know where it was
done, but I’ve not seen better from St.
Leger or Turnbull. I was told that Krieghoff
uses a proprietary clear-coating process
that should immeasurably extend the life of
the colors. Our test gun was several years
old and had been through many hands. The
gold wash on the front trigger was just
starting to thin, but even the case coloring

of the much-handled edges of the action
had not thinned.
Unfortunately, there is a pimple on the
nose of perfection. Each side of the action
is inflicted with large gold letters screaming
“Krieghoff.” I know that the company
is justly proud of its gun but, in an offering
so otherwise tasteful, this is a bit
much. Something a little subtler might be
in order.
You can have any kind of engraving
your wallet will tolerate, but the standard
pattern is just about perfect. It’s about 10percent
coverage of nicely executed fine
scroll, mostly along the borders and receiver
bottom. It’s a beautiful less-ismore
look that fits the restrained and classic
overall appearance. It doesn’t fight
with the rest of the gun for recognition the
way the engraving does on so many overembellished
sidelocks.
This is important, because it is the shape
of the Essencia action—not any particular
added embellishment—that imparts its
grace. I’ll be frank with you and commit a
little heresy. Although I always have admired
the quality of a classic traditional
sidelock, the juxtaposition of the flat sidelock
plate with the rest of the curved surfaces
of the gun always has seemed to
clash. The Essencia is mechanically a sidelock,
but it has a dainty rounded action. The
sidelocks flow into the stock with just the
slightest curve on the edges. There is no
drop-point transition. There are no abrupt
edges. The underside of the action is substantially
curved to fit the hand for comfortable
field carry. Yes, I know that everyone
is rounding sidelock actions these days, but
not like this. The Essencia’s smooth curves
are echoed by the slightly convex doubleindent
outline at the rear of the diminutive
sidelocks reminiscent of an 1880s British
gun like a Scott, Blanch or H&H Dominion.
It’s gorgeous. It’s sensual. It passes the
“close your eyes and run your hands over
it” test. No rough segments. No awkward
angles. Just smooth-flowing perfection.
The Essencia isn’t all just good looks either.
It’s a shooter. At 6 pounds 6 ounces, it
is about right for a 20-gauge. Balance was
on the pin. I didn’t measure moment of inertia,
but the gun feels as though it carries
just a little bit more of its weight at the extremities
than some more-center-weighted
British 20s I’ve shot. Not too much, but
just enough to impart some stability while
permitting rapid movement. Of course this
is all a matter of personal taste, but I really
think that in spite of its extraordinary
looks, this gun was designed by a shooter
for a shooter. Sometimes you can have
your strudel and eat it too.
Barrel convergence, ejectors, triggers
and safety all worked as they were supposed
to, though, as mentioned, I might
lighten the trigger pulls just a touch. They
were certainly crisp enough and gave instant
response. The barrels and action
were also easy to clean—a sign of
smoothly machined surfaces.
As befits such a gun, the Essencia
comes with a first-class all-leather Emmebi
case with separate canvas cover. It
contains snap-caps, which Krieghoff advises
you use to relax the springs before
storage. There is a one-year warranty. I
should also mention that the Krieghoff
service in the US is among the best you
will ever experience.
I’ve written gun reviews both here and
elsewhere for a number of years. During
that time I’ve shot junk and gems. This little
20 touched me in a way that few others
have. It’s one of those fortuitous combinations
of form and function. It is stunning
to look at, very well made and delightful
to use. The Essencia name was well chosen.
It’s what a shotgun is all about.
Author’s Note: For more information on
Krieghoff guns, contact Krieghoff International
Inc., 610-847-5173; www.krieghoff.com.
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