I looked an interesting target rifle today. The barrel was marked Paul Reuss in Stuttgart and Guesstahl. It was a quality bolt action gun with nice engraving and a very heavy octagon barrel. Any information on this maker? Quality of his work? Values?

thank you
Patrick

Hello,

Paul Reuss was a trader and gunmaker. On German egun ther is a nice double rifle on auction right now:

http://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=4476678

He was mentioned on a deal about some Colt SAA revolvers on this Site:

http://www.forest-rebels.de/?s=galerie&g=waffenausstellung


Kind Regards,
Gunwolf

Patrick,
The "Guessstahl"is likely for Gussstahl, or fluid steel(barrel material). Photos would be helpful.
Mike

I tried putting them in a photo bucket slideshow. Lets see if this works.

photobucket

I can't find Reuss in Der Neue Stockel but judging from a few specimens singned by his name scattered on the internet I would date Paul Reuss' active period from circa 1870s to the early 1900s.

With kind regards,
Jani

Photos are fine. This could be an early piece, maybe from circa 1875. On the other hand, similar rifles were made for a couple of decades so it's not easy to pinpoint the year withoud other information such as caliber, etc.

With kind regards,
Jani

I very much doubt that Paul Reuss, Kronprinzenstr.3, Stuttgart, made the rifle himself. It is of the simplified Mauser M71 type, made in Suhl or, more often, Zella Mehlis for the trade. These actions were a staple of the guntrade there, made by many shops in many different sizes, from small garden rifles using pistol sized cartridges through stalking and target rifles like this one up to Vogelbüchsen rifles in 12 bore. Dating the rifle is not easy. If there are proofmarks under the barrel, it was made after 1893. If not, 1875 to 1893. Reuss is documented being active from 1881 to 1901. In 1884 he advertised Smith & Wesson No.3 revolvers converted to use the German 11 mm Reichsrevolver cartridge.

Thankyou

Patrick,
What Kuduae said, plus I think it is a nice rifle. I have a similar one with no safety and different trigger guard(not nearly in as good shape), in 8.15x46R.My bolt seems a good bit longer than yours.I believe yours is chambered for a somewhat shorter cartridge.If you want to get into it,we can likely figure out the caliber.I vote for the date being on the early side of Axels estimate.My experience(not as vast as Axels)indicates that the "button" lower sling attachment is more common on rifles near the muzzle loading time, than later. As he said this type action is refered to as a M71 type, But I struggle with this as it is hard to differenate between the Mauser and Dresey(sp)types, since they have some common features.
Mike

Thankyou, I appreciate the information.

Patrick

Mike,sorry, here you are wrong, just as John Walter "RIFLES of the WORLD" is. Walter ascribes all these "Simplified M71 actions" to Dreyse. Though during the final years of the family owned company, about 1900, Nikolaus II von Dreyse sold many guns of this type bought in from Zella-Mehlis too, Franz von Dreyse's own centerfire bolt action, designed to compete with Mauser's M71 action and also offered as sporting rifles, but quite rare, is very much different and not easily confused IMHO if you have an eye for details. The curves that cock the striker are not at the rear end of the bolt body as on the Mauser, but inside the bolt between the long, separate bolt head and striker. The Dreyse action is put on safe not by blocking the striker, but through uncocking the coil mainspring by giving the bolt sleeve a quarter turn and sliding it back, similar to Dreyse's needlefire rifles. The only features Dreyse's and Mauser's M71 designs have in common: Both are single-shot bolt actions with seperate bolt heads, locked by the bolt handle root only. Here is a contemporary drawing and a photo of Franz von Dreyse's centerfire action:


The seperate bolt head goes back to the front of the bolt handle, joint visible in the photo.
BTW, Walter's book is often plain wrong, at least unreliable, when it comes to German rifles.

Axel,
As you know,I'm often wrong, but don't have the references you do.Walter also said the sear in the Mod 71 was from Dreyse.Is this also wrong?
Mike

That sear arrangement with the long leaf spring was used by Nicolaus Dreyse in his 1841 needle fire. If he invented it is another question I cannot answer at the moment, but I doubt that. When the Mausers designed their first bolt action, the Mauser-Norris in 1867, it was a common design feature in the public domain. The Russian Moisin-Nagant uses the same sear, but noone said it was designed by Dreyse. Gun designers ever used known and prooven features. You may say as well that all bolt actions were invented by Dreyse, as they all share a bolt locked by turning.

Maybe some confusion comes in because the first Mauser efforts were to convert Dreyse and Chassepot needlefires to rimfire or centerfire,unless Walter and other authors are wrong about that also(leaving my options open).
Mike

I took this rifle out of the stock today and here is what I found stamped on the bottom on the action and barrel.
Any info on the mark?

thank you

Patrick