Gunwolf.
Dieter Weisgerber is the grandson of W. Weisgerber. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about his grandfather, that I thought would interest some of the forum members. Wilhelm Weisgerber was born in 1866 and died in 1920. His business records were lost during WW-2. He did use Buchel system actions in making his rifles.
Mike
The problem with this rifle isn't with the ammunition. After firing, the firing pin is kept pushed into the primer by the striker and can only be retracted as the breach block rotates. However the breach block can't rotate because the firing pin has it locked up.
There must have been a mechanism for retracting the firing pin before the breach block rotates but whatever the mechanism was, it is no longer obvious and may have been lost at the time of the prior unsuccessful repair.
A local gunsmith has examined the rifle and has confirmed the preceding analysis. He suggested a lever extension to initiate striker retraction prior to breach block rotation but I've been reluctant to modify the the action. I was hoping that a forum member might have a Buchel actioned rifle and could describe how Buchel handled this problem.
Otto
