it is marked in Bremen on top of the barrel.
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Well whatever it is I pick it up tomorrow.

I sure have a difficult time getting that Photobucket thing to work.  Some photos flashed on the screen and I thought I recognized some characteristics of the rifle.  It is a German Martini.

Back in April 1968, I bought a dandy German Martini stalking rifle in 8.15 x46R that has many of the same characteristics; same rounded parts "cheeks?" on the action & stock, same lever.  Square hole for tang sight instead of triangle.  My action is engraved & case hardened.  Absolutely no markings on my rifle.  Nothing telling who the maker was & no proof marks.  I still have that rifle.  It's a keeper.

On pages 79-81 of Vol. 2 of Alte Schiebenwaffen, there is a similar rifle.  IIRC, the maker of that one is also unknown.

The searching I have done led me to the same conclusion; that my rifle was made before 1891.   

In my rifle, the breech block is bored through, so that when the block is lowered, the barrel can be inspected & cleaned from the breech.  To do so, the tang sight must be removed.

Perhaps Biggi can shed some light on these unknown German Martinis?

Hi Bryan!

Thanks for showing us your new baby. Seems to need a little bit of work and care. But each hour you spend on it will it be worth!

Nice old Martini. I love the old Martini rifles, I own also an real old one, from Salzburg/Austria.

Couldn't find a pic in your photo-bucket gallery with the name on it. So I needed longer to figure out, that you asked about KÖHNKE and not KOHNKE. That's a big difference...

I checked my gunsmith-archives, and I found some information of such a Prussian gunsmith! 

He is mentioned between 1859 and 1888 and was at the German Bundesschießen in Vienna and 1881 at the Bundesschießen in Munich. He manufactured hunting rifles and target rifles.

And I found an entry in an old address directory of Bremen from 1860, there is a gunsmith mentioned named Heinrich Wilhelm Köhnke. He was in 1860 at the age of 30 years.

So one can say, if your rifle is manufactured before 1890, it was one of his late workpieces.

The north German rifles from Prussia were not so much engraved and fancy, like our south German rifles from Bavaria and Austria. But your rifle has an impressive butt-plate, very peppy.

            Biggi.   

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BryanB wrote on Mar 7^th, 2013 at 8:29pm:



Hi Bryan.

You are not sure it is a "KÖHNKE in Bremen" ??? It was just a guess from you?   

Bremen is a town. Believe me, there was more than one gunsmith in Bremen in the old days. If you don't find another mark on the rifle about the maker, one cannot say it's made by Mr. KÖHNKE.

               Biggi.   

Well, I am the gunsmith's great, great grandson (hope I got the right number of greats)...Our family is from Bremen, Germany and this Köhncke was gunsmith in Bremen.  Between 2 World Wars suspect not many examples of his work left.   

Be interested to know how you like it or still have it.

Taking it apart and comparing to pictures in the Alte Shibenwaffer, whatever it is books, will most likely tell you what it is. The innards are important in identifying the system/maker.

    Joe.