I do not know Merkels and so thought I'd ask for advice on a gun I saw today. It is a Merkel 147CL. Box lock with very nice wood, or at least seemed so to me. I would describe the case coloring as "strong," for lack of a better word, but it goes well with the wood.

On a little looking around, I see that the 147E and 147EL are boxlock designations, whereas 147SL and 147SSL are sidelocks. But I don't find anything on the "CL" and don't see them on Gunbroker or Gunsamerica.

What is this 147CL? The shop is asking $4000. Is that reasonable? The stock is banged up a bit, but it's not horrible. Bores look good. 20ga.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

A 20ga boxlock,case colored,no deep full coverage game scene scroll engraving,makes it not worth that money,unless it happens to be one of the pre ww2 sxs`s they made.

I've had a couple of Merkels in the past and still own a 47E 20 ga but certainly don't profess to know a lot about them.

However, I've seen a 147CL on sale by a dealer here on the Web about 10 or 12 months ago--a 12 ga, as I recall. As you've already noted, the CC is not at all typical of Merkels; almost an aqua color, lighter and brighter than the usual Merkel CC. And the stock was a good deal lighter (what I, as a novice, would call blond) than typical Merkel wood and with a lot of chocolate swirl. Actually, that combination of CC and wood color for some reason turned out to be fairly attractive, to my eye anyway.

As I recall, the dealer made mention that this gun was some sort of special (limited?) edition and, so, was demanding a premium for the gun. This particular gun appeared almost new and I'm left with the impression that production was fairly recent.

I don't know if this helps but....

Granby

Thanks, Granby. That's a good description of the case coloring and wood. It was light with a good bit of red and a lot of figuring. Attractive gun. I checked the Blue Book today and see no mention of a 147CL.

http://www.gsifirearms.com/gsif/

You could ask the folks at GSI ( link above) They have been helpful to me in the past re:Merkels