What I really want find out now may beyond hope, but I suspect this may be a WW-2 'bring-back' from the civilian gun confiscation our army did on the way to Berlin in order to prevent the likelihood of a civilian insurrection behind the combat line. GIs were allowed to ship some of them back home. Many fine European guns entered the USA in that time period.
My fantasy is that some local German Baron ordered this repeating shotgun in 1909 when it came out in 16ga to be the first in the area to own one for boar hunting. Then, it was surrendered in 1945 and has been standing in the corner of some former GI's closet ever since.
The local young man who has it dropped it by the house earlier this week when I was at work and told my wife he'd like me to look at it and tell him what he had, with the idea of disposing of it. I have not spoken to him but might find out some history when I do...Geo
