Krieghoff K80 Parcours
The Birth of the Krieghoff K-80 Parcours Shotgun
H.Krieghoff of Ulm, Germany, which was founded as Sempert & Krieghoff in 1886, had been producing European hunting guns, mostly double rifles and multibarrel combination rifle/shotgun firearms for the European market. After WW II ended, however, Russia assumed control of E. Germany and Heinrich Krieghoff escaped to Ulm, W. Germany. At the same time, Remington suspended production of its Model 32, released in 1932, and Heinrich resumed production of the Remington Model 32 as the patent rights held by DuPont and Remington had expired. Heinrich made significant improvements to the Remington Model -32 and in the mid 1950s, the first Krieghoff Model 32 was produced known as the K- 32. With this launch, Heinrich Krieghoff firm’s journey into manufacturing precision competition over/under shotguns became legendary. The Krieghoff K-32 was tough enough to withstand the abuse of thousands of firings as clay shooting soon became the new fade amongst shooters worldwide. In 1980, Krieghoff made further improvements to the K-32 and this modification became known as the K-80. Also, in 1980, Dieter Krieghoff immigrated to the US and established Krieghoff International. Today, Dieter and Phil Krieghoff represent the fourth and fifth generation of the Krieghoff family continuing a tradition of over 130 years of fine gun making. The K- 80 collection of shotguns include the K-80 Pro Sporter, K-80 Sporting, K-80 Skeet, K-80 Parcours, K- 80 ACS, and the k-80 Trap Special Combo.
The K-80 has been a competitive shooters dream due to its increased muzzle weight and, therefore, low-recoiling providing a great swing balance ratio. With its heavy weight (often approaching nine pounds) and the premount behavior of many competitive and repetitious shooters, the K-80 became thought of as a “German grand touring luxury sedan” in the shooting world. Drive it all day, and never get tired. But, Krieghoff, always attuned to the recreational shooter, wanted a K-80 modified to keep its German heritage but also made to be a “shooting sports car” – fast, agile, fun to shoot, exciting, etc. The K-80 Parcours was conceived!
“Parcour”, a French noun to describe “a sport or athletic activity in which the participant seeks to move quickly and fluidly through an area of obstacles”. From Latin: “percursus” – means “to run through”. So, Krieghoff in its endeavor to modify it’s traditional K-80 introduced the Krieghoff K-80 Parcours in late February 2012 at the British Shooting Show in Newark, England. It has since been given many “kudos” by the recreational shooters worldwide.
Perfectly balanced between the hands, the Parcours gives the recreational shooter a gun that is approximately 8 pounds. Featuring 32” fixed chokes, soldered ribbed lighter barrels, a slimmer forearm and a totally new stock design, the K-80 Parcours points and moves with ease. A forged-steel, hand-fitted K-80 receiver (at a length of 4¾ inches it has to be the longest over/under receiver in the industry) that has been the “gold standard” of all the K-80 collection over the past quarter century in skeet, trap and sporting clays remains intact in the K-80 Parcours. According to Alex Diehl, Krieghoff International’s COO, the inherent balance of the long K-80 receiver serves to mitigate felt recoil in the Parcours. Krieghoff’s R&D shotgun team in Ulm, Germany instead concentrated on the barrels and wood in order to reduce weight and yet still keep proper balance. German engineering in gun making bringing French flare to the American market – it’s what makes Krieghoff an international sensation!