By Dietrich Apel

Over the years many articles about German hunting guns and their makers appeared in 40 Journals of the German Gun Collectors Association.  At best about 700 members and friends could read these articles and see the photos. By showing some of them in this website they can be shared with many others.  More will be shown as we add more gun makers to our listings.

We have also saved many photos of German hunting guns and will show the best and most interesting ones, again adding them as we list more gun makers or information that is of interest.

Both the articles and the photos will have running numbers that allow us to link them to the articles, photos and subjects of interest in our archive. The photos will have captions for proper identification.

 

Merkel Anniversary Guns

This full page ad in color appeared in a Shooting Sportsman Magazine and shows an engraved Merkel side-by-side shotgun with sidelocks. The ad was placed by the well known L.L. Bean Company in Maine in celebration of their 100th Anniversary and offers a limited addition of 20 Sets of Guns comprised of four guns in 12-16-20 and 410 gauge each.

Jaeger weist den Weg in German

This article recently appeared in the highly respected Deutches Waffen Journal and was written by Gerhard Wirnsberger. Since it covers the same invention that is described in the next article, we hope that some Germans who love their guns will find this website and dont have to struggle with a translation. That Mr. Wirnsberger chose the title Jaeger shows the way is high praise for this Franz Jaeger invention. Wir grssen unsere Leser in Deutschland!

Franz Jaegers Best Inventions

This article appeared in Der Waffenschmied, the Journal of the German Gun Collectors Association, and introduces two of Franz Jaegers best inventions. His hand-cocking mechanism for the firing mechanism of multi-barrel guns is used widely ever since he brought it on the market and is now used on a modern doule rifle by Krieghoff and even on modern German Bolt Action Rifles. To open this article in our archive, click on the blue and underlined headline.

Heeren Rifle

This article by Richard Hummel appeared in Journal Nr.29 of the German Gun Collectors Association and describes in detail a rifle by Nagel & Menz on a Heeren action and formerly belonged to John Amber. Not only does it show good photos, but it also describes the function of the patented action and all features of the rifle in detail. Clicking on the above blue and underlined headline will open the article in our archive.

Mauser Model 87

With the kind permission from the Julia Auction House with scanned the pages of a very unusual Mauser Bolt Action Rifle that was shown in one of their auction catalogs. It is truly a very unusual rifle with a known history and the most elaborate engraving, stock carving and stock inlays. Click on the above blue and underlined headline and enjoy the wonderful photos and the description of this rifle.

The Rasch family of Braunschweig Büchsenmacher’s

This is the story of a 300 year dynasty of the Rasch family of prominent gun makers in Braunschweig and that cities destruction in 1944 by Allied bombing.