to hunters starting in 1930, and the military iteration of the M30 was produced from 1941 to 1942. They were procured outside of normal military channels and so the military versions were made to the same standards of fit and finish as the commercial version, making the M30 extremely expensive. The M30 was a Normaldrilling ("normal Drilling") or klassischer Drilling ("classic Drilling"), a type of combination gun with two shotgun barrels and one rifle barrel, which became popular with European hunters in the early 20th century. Drillings had existed earlier, but prior to the introduction of affordable and reliable cast steel gun barrels in the late 19th century they were either prohibitively expensive or too heavy and unwieldy to see much use. The M30 Luftwaffe Drilling was stored in an aluminium chest on board the aircraft, containing the weapon disassembled into barrel assembly and stock, a sling and cleaning kit, 20 rounds of soft-pointed 9.3x74mmR ammunition (which under international law the airman could not fire at an enemy soldier), 20 12-gauge slug shells and 25 12-gauge birdshot shells. The whole chest weighed , and was intended to be retrieved from the aircraft after it crashed rather than taken as the crew bailed out. Surviving examples are extremely rare, as only around 2,500 were produced. Design The weapon has two hammerless shotgun barrels with a single rifle barrel underneath, firing two 12 or 16 gauge shells (16 only seems to have been used on the commercial version) alongside a single 9.3x74mmR rifle round. The M30 has two triggers and a sliding selector directly behind the lever for opening the breech. With the selector in the forward position, the 100m V-notch rear sight is raised and the forward trigger engaged. In this mode, the front trigger fires the rifle barrel while the rear trigger fires the left shotgun barrel, which is choked for Brenneke slugs. Sliding the selector back retracts the rear sight and makes the front trigger fire the right shotgun barrel, which is choked for birdshot. This setup, common for Drilling-type combination guns, allows the weapon to fire three shots without either opening the breech or lowering the weapon from the shoulder. See also M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon Marble Game Getter TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol Combination gun List of multiple-barrel firearms References External links Sauer & Sohn M30 Drilling (Brazilian web site, with photos) Combination guns Survival guns World War