OK , OK I’m hurrying as fast as I can ;-).
F.W. Heym Research:
My Heym research started because of a custom sporting rifle (no surprise there) built by Heym on a 1903 Springfield.
These are some of my notes on the company, my interest is in Suhl made guns only. If anyone has a Heym shotgun (or rifle) that they would like to share info on please let me know, I need the BARREL serial number as well as others, the proof date code and need to know if the barrel serial number has any initials after the number. Much more info to follow, I just need to dig it all out and get some pictures ready.
1865: Founded in 1865 by Friedrich Wilhelm Heym in Suhl, Germany
1912: F.W. Heym’s son Adolf Heym takes over the business
1920: F.W. Heym’s other son August Heym takes over the business.
1945: August Heym and his son Rolf move to Ostheim, West Germany and make air rifles, clocks, slid rules and spinning wheels.
1952: Build firearms factory in Muennerstadt, West Germany
1963: Rolf takes over the business
1972: Rolf Heym dies and his wife Elisabeth Heym-Dschulnigg is now owner
1996: Moved company to Glecichamberg, Germany twenty kilometers from Suhl
The Heym Company supplied me with this code for later guns.
GA=1960
GB=1961
GC=1962
GD=1963
GE=1964
GF=1965
GG=1966
GH=1967
GJ=1968
GK=1969
HA=1970…. HK=1979
JA=1980……JK=1989
KA=1990…...KK=1999
This is about all I have published on the subject of Heym.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heym:
This company was founded in 1865 by Friedrich Wilhelm Heym in Suhl, Germany, who specialized in made-to-order higher grade guns. The Heym family had been involved in gunmaking from before 1750. In 1912 the business was taken over by F.W. Heym’s son Adolph and in 1920 the business was passed from Adolph’s hands to his son August. August Heym was a master engraver as well as a good friend of American custom gunmaker Robert G. (Bob) Owen (see PS March, 1999). Bob and August kept up their friendship via letters and on a least four occasions Bob visited August in Germany. Bob Owen Jr. still remembers the letters from August Heym as being signed “Best Loves, Augie.” I believe that some of the parts found on Owen sporters like the hinged floorplate were made in Heym’s factory. I have seen several Owen guns, both shotguns and rifles, that I believe were engraved by August Heym. Some are signed with Heym’s name, others are not. At the close of WWII August Heym was imprisoned and tortured by the communists. Within a few days of his release he, along with his family, escaped to the Western Zone, and was followed by a few workers from his old factory in Suhl. August started a new company in Ostheim, Bavaria then followed a move to Muennerstadt, Bavaria. Heym produced air-guns, in West Germany until 1952 when he received permission to restart firearms production. Five years later the town built Heym a factory. Rolf Heym, August’s son took over the business in 1963. In 1996 the company moved to Glecichamberg, Germany, twenty kilometers from the original factory in Suhl.
The Illustrated Heym-Springfield was made circa 1927 when August Heym was running the business. The barrel is made by Heym using Krupp steel and is in caliber .30-06. The lands are .300” and the grooves are.308” with ramp front and three leaf express sights. This rifle has exhibition wood, a trapdoor buttplate, a trapdoor grip-cap, a Lyman 48 receiver sight and a horn forend tip. Most of the rifle is covered with an English type scroll engraving very tastefully and professionally done. Because the length-of-pull is much longer than normal the rifle was a made-to-order one and not made for speculation. The workmanship on this rifle is beyond reproach. This Heym Springfield is as good as anything I have seen in a custom rifle.
I have noticed some rifles made in Germany have a forend tip of horn or ebony that have been mounted differently from the American forend tip. In America the forend tip is mounted as a solid piece butted up to the rifle stock and held with dowels, then glued. Some makers such as Bob Owen used a mortise & tenon joint to hold the tip. The German rifles have the forend thinned down, then the tip is glued on as a sleeve over the stock wood. I am told by a student of German gun building that this type construction is found as far back as the Wheelock.
