doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com Merkel Combination Gun with Ejectors

A couple of years ago I bought an Over/Under Merkel double shotgun built in 1953. It has ejectors. There is also a fitted BBF barrel set, made by Krieghoff in 2958, in 16ga-7X65R. That barrel set has ejectors also. I figured it was a one-off, where Krieghoff made the ejector set simply because the parent gun had them. But this week I bought a Merkel BBF, same action as the shotgun, same combo calibers, made completely by Merkel, and it too has ejectors. What is also interesting is that the shotgun barrels almost drop and lock into the second BBF action. In my 50 years of combination gun interest, this is my first experience with ejectors in combination guns. Are these rare, or have I just not been exposed to the upper echelon of combination guns? For photos, see it on gunbroker here: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1135526740

Really neat that they mate & my hope now is that is across the board on other Merkels. I would say the ejectors were on German platforms for the elite Pre-WWII and are not common but not rare. Now on Pre-WWII Austrian - Ferlach platforms, rare just might be the case. On Post WWII German offerings, they became more common place. The Post WWII time period for your Kombo is very interesting because the Big European Retailers and looking in every corner for guns. Since Russia occupied Suhl, the bulk of their guns went to Russia where Hunting Weapons had not been available to Hunters since the late 1930s. So Retailers looked to Ferlach for as many as they could get in amongst the British Orders during the British Occupation. One sees many guns dated before they were supposed to be available to the Hunters.



Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

Too, sources give that the O/U was for the elite & the retail price was several times the monthly wage of the average worker. The elite had a weapon for every occasion, whereas the lowly Forester could only afford the >>Farmer's Weapons<<, the drilling. And even then, not every Forester could afford such.

Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse