Can anyone tell me how to do this. Thanks in advance.

I can't say I know for sure, but if it is like a Model 8, then you have to get the trigger bar out of there. It's been a while since I have pulled mine, but I recall it always takes me longer than it should to puzzle out, and something to do with the trigger/safety mechanism must be dealt with first.

Brent

I realize that this is from last year, I found it while doing general research on a Merkel. I thought I would post the procedure in case someone else did a search on it. I do this every year or so on my Merkels to give them a deep cleaning - or every time they get rained on.
Remove fore end and barrels. Release the hammers. Remove the back screw on the trigger guard and rotate the trigger guard off the receiver. Remove the large screw under the trigger guard. Remove the two screws on the bottom of the receiver. If the triggerplate does not drop out, tap a wooden dowel on the plate, through the top of the receiver between the action flats and it should come out.
The buttstock will now come off easily.

From seeing many a screwed up Merkel, thin bladed screw drivers aren't an option they are required to take them apart.

Thin bladed hollow-grounds are required for any quality shotgun, but yes, they are essential on a Merkel. Those screw slots are narrow! I have one of Brownell's Magna-Tip thin-blade sets for general shotgun work but have custom-ground some of the bits to specifically fit each individual screw on both of my Merkel's. The slots on both are not pristine due to a former owner (but not too bad, Bubba didn't try his Craftsman screwdrivers) and I want to maintain them until I can get a set of jeweler's files and repair them. Engraved screws are a b!tch to fix without it being visible - to me, anyway. Picky, picky.....

As a fellow Merkel owner, what sort of sadist decided that they must have tin-foil screw slots in the first place? Form w/o reasonable function is ridiculous.

Brownells used to have screw-slot files. Make the slots any size you want. It's your gun, innit?

just a thot


have another day
Dr.WtS

After I've made the screwdrivers to remove them so I can reslot them, exactly what would be the point?

I think it is the Germans showing off their metallurgy skills, i.e., they can make steel that is so strong, their screw drivers can be paper-thin and still be strong enough to back out a stuck screw.

ones needs to use a torch for such tasks...

Ed's answer to anything beyond his extremely limited capability.

How true. I just now realized who (and what) he is (and is not - which includes gunsmith!).