Chris,

There are two books you should have if your going to do some work on an Aydt. The first is "Single Shot Rifles and Actions" by Frank deHaas. It has a very good drawing of the inside of the Aydt along with several other German single shots. The second book, or series if your rich, is "Alte Scheibenwaffen" edited by Tom Rowe. Volume 1 covers the Aydt and its variations. These books aren't as useful when working on the internals, but contain a wealth of information on the rifles themselves.

Remember when working on these rifles, that they were largely hand-made and therefore very few parts will interchange.

Your friend was refering to a "Zimmerstutzen". These rifles fired a 4 millimeter ball, sometimes from a fixed rimfire shell, sometimes loaded with a seperate primer and ball (no powder) in a loading mechinisim located on the forward part of the barrel. These arms are covered in volume 3 of the Alte Scheibenwaffen series. They were used indoors and have much less power than a .22.

Most Aydt rifles are chambered for the 8.15 x 46R cartridge and were used out doors at distances up to 300 meters. This cartridge is similar to the American .32-40.

Hope this helps,

Steve Durren

Thanks for the info!

I guess I need to buy a clunker or one in very bad shape to get some dimensions off of. I can make the missing parts, or rather if I want to use it, I better get my shop going again. 

There is an antique firearm show this coming weekend here in in Atlanta. Maybe I will get lucky and find one I can copy, then I will have 2? jeez, that's how I got started with muzzle stuffers. Guess I better get another gun safe.

I also will ordered the DeHaas books. Track of the Wolf or, it seems like a family member is carrying on? There is a Mark DeHaas with a website selling that book and many more. Folks seem to mention it  a lot, so I think I better get with the program.

Thanks again for the help,
Chris