I have another German Schuetzen rifle enroute to me by mail at the moment.  That one is in 9.5x47R ... which gives me 3 rifles in that chambering now!  I'll post some pictures of that one too when it arrives.

Yep ... she's a plain Jane "vanilla" Schuetzen rifle for sure.  Not a mark stamped anywhere on the receiver or barrel and no checkering.  I'm tempted to knock that glossy finish off the stocks and refinish it in a matte oil finish, but that is just my personal preference.  I can live without checkering.  It has been drilled and tapped for scope mounts on the barrel and receiver already so I could always mount a scope on it just to work up some loads and then either fill the holes or maybe just put in some plug screws?

Habermann and Schmidt?

Looks like one of these modified to a more forward block actuator.

OK, I finally took a minute to pull the key and remove the forend and ... voila! ... there are actually some proofs showing on the underside of the barrel.  Looks like "HSTAHL" plus "GEM" plus a cross or plus sign (+) and a cartouche that I don't recognize and couldn't find anything online that looks anything like it.  Also the number "16".  Can any of our resident proof experts decipher any of these marks?

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Perhaps a "Guild Rifle" ?
beltfed/arnie

hessstahl literally translates as "hess steel", and my guess is that refers to steel made in Hesse, currently a German federal state, formerly a principality, and the source of the famous mercenaries, the Hessians, which the British threw at us during that unpleasantness we call the American Revolution.

Bill Lawrence

Although not my game in shooting I have always admired the Germanic style, design, engineering, execution and quality of their work.
I agree this is not journeyman work especially in the wood. That is one honking big chunk of wood. The inletting isn't up to quality you are used to seeing. The wood is probably the plainest I've see and has no drain or figure you can see through that finish which is an unattractive color. I would think a refinish would help. I like the rifle and think once the wood is done it would see the range. A good scope would help load development. Should be a fun journey as you never can tell if that ugly duckling is a swan ready to come out.
Enjoy
Bob

I have to agree, I don’t think the stock is original, but what the h**l it should be fun to shoot. Let us know what round it is chambered for. Wife and I were in Victoria this spring, stayed in the Oak Bay hotel, what a beautiful city.
Mike

yamoon wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2019 at 2:33pm:


If you look at the photo with the action open you will see that the "lever" your mentioned is part of the trigger guard assembly and it cams the breech block down into the open or loading position.

OK, I made a little bit of progress on this old girl today.

I was going to run out to visit a couple of friends which are near one of my shooting ranges and on a sudden whim I quickly grabbed this rifle and took an orphan .45-70 case to check the rim size compared to the chamber and extractor.  Seemed a good fit so I wondered if it might actually have been altered to the .40-50 Sharps BN that it was listed to be chambered in?

I ran the .45-70 case through my .40-82 Winchester die, then through my .38/56 Winchester die at which point the case "plopped" into the chamber right up to the rim.  So far so good and it seemed to be a reasonable fit.

I primed the case and loaded my usual fire-forming blank of shotgun powder, a 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue, yellow cornmeal up to the case mouth, and then another 1/4 sheet of toilet tissue to hold it all in place.  I stopped by the range and quickly banged off the fire-forming round to see what would come out of the chamber.  Hmmm ... some interesting results.

The case had a very "pregnant" bulge amidships, but showed a very distinct shoulder and neck.  It looked rather familiar in shape, so when I got back home I quickly dug out a round of 11mm / .43 Mauser brass and compared them. The shoulder is at the same length and the "bulge" is about the same diameter as the .43 Mauser case, and the case mouths were about the same inside diameter.

I took a round of loaded .40-50 Sharps straight and the entire bullet AND case mouth dropped in at the muzzle.  I took a factory loaded round of Dominion (CIL Canada) .43 Mauser and the bullet is a nice snug fit at the muzzle.

From the distinct line showing on the fire formed .45-70 case which appears to be the end of the chamber it would appear that this rifle is in some sort of 11mm based on the .43 Mauser case, with the shoulder at about the same length, but with a much shorter neck.  (Overall length appears to be about 1.94".)  I couldn't match it up to any of the 11mm cartridges in Donelly's book, so it is likely some gunsmith's proprietary 11mm cartridge of about 11.15x50mm.  I'll definitely have to slug the barrel to determine actual groove size, and do a cerrosafe chamber cast to determine the exact case length.

For comparison here is the fire-formed .45-70 case, a .43 Mauser case, and a 9.5x47R case from one of my other Schuetzen rifles.

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Exactly, download the PDF sample issue - second article.
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