Canvasback and I were conversing on another forum about interesting but unknown shotguns we have encountered. He has an exceptional one that got us started, but this OShatz is one that I bought and the sold to a friend. Currently, it is hanging out in my safe, but will soon be heading back home to Nebraska again.

Anyway, this was made in Poland (close enough to be German/Austrian). I think the barrels are out of Stuhl, but I really don't know much about the gun or OShatz. I did track down another of his guns that made me think he eventually moved to Stuhl, or maybe he originated there.

I believe this gun may have been made for the British, Swedish, or American market, but I'm guessing a lot.

This gun has its locks on the trigger bar which allows it to be very narrow across the breeches, so much so, that I swore it was a 16 when I picked it up from a table where it was for sale. That narrowness is very attractive to me. For comparison, I threw in my more or less "normal" Cashmore hammer gun, which is a gun I love all out of proportion to its plainness.

Anyone else have an OShatz or know anything about him?

A few more pictures

Here the calipers are set for the width across the breeches of the Cashmore. The Oshatz is almost 200 thousands narrower than the Cashmore (both are 12s).

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ioT6Tsr.jpg?1[/img]

Stettin was a historically German city near the Baltic Sea until the ethnic cleansing following World War II, when the population was expelled and the area of Pomerania became part of the Polish People's Republic, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement between Stalin, Truman & Attlee.

J.K.B. von Falkenhorst

Yes, it appears it has belonged to several countries and regularly gets kicked around. Google maps and Wikipedia says Poland now and that it is also known as Szczecin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szczecin

Have you ever heard of OShatz the gun builder or seen another of his guns?

Here are 2 possible sources to clarify:
- p.bochynski@gmail.com
( a Polish journalist/writer who came up with
answers re Dmytrach/Lemberg/Lvov/Lviv)
and
- Suhl-Universalgenie-Raimey alias
ellenbrs@bellsouth.net
Cheers
Felix

Already answered :

https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=491209

Cheers,
Wolfgang

Ah, but one hopes for new blood and perhaps a little more depth.

I thought I had made a post here this morning but apparently not.

To start, on the old thread, that is definitely one of the more bizarre posts I've ever read from jagermeister.

That's a really nice looking gun Brent. Especially the 6 pounds 6 oz and 30" barrel part. Very Sauer-ish looking in profile. Now I'm kinda curious why you sold it. Looks like the current "it girl" of 12 gauges. Nice and light with long barrels.

What was the fit and finish like when up close and personal?

I have no idea what jagermeister was blabbering about and didn't give it a second thought then, or now. Some obscure agenda I suppose.

I sold it because I was then, like now, still in the hunt for something else. I wanted 6 lbs or less and 28" barrels or less. My Merkel 8 is already at 6.5 lbs, with 28" barrels. So, it wasn't really a big change for me, though I do dearly love the slim lines from above, those close set barrels are like no others. I was also hot for a Darne, which I had also never seen except in photos.

Now a Darne has come and gone. The friend that bought the OShatz bought a Boucher that I pointed out to him, and I have regretted not buying that one myself ever since. With the Boucher in play last year, the OShatz came back for some minor repairs by a local gunsmith and doublegun member.
After a Covid-prolonged stay, it will soon be headed back to Nebraska where it will while away its days as back up to the Boucher.

The OShatz was, and still is, the first gun with trigger plate locks that I had ever encountered. I am always looking for them now, but they don't appear often, at my price points anyway. They make for a remarkably slim gun but they also compromise the stock's ability to soak up recoil with relatively little surface area contact.

It's metal work fit is excellent, but the wood-metal fit had suffered from much use and oil, so we eventually bedded it and it is now quite robust, but it is no magnum spitter either. Obviously, it has been used a lot and shows that wear.

It might be a F.W. Keßler variant? I'd have to look. Kebler or Klett tubes. I don't see any >>Nitro<< stamps. If so, it would date pre 1912. There were several Oschatz firearms merchant: one in Berlin-Potsdam that dates from 1863; one in Stuttgart & our Leopold Oschatz in Stettin/Pommern. Too, there was a Büchsenmacher Fritz Kühner that was involved & seeing he was active in the late 1800s, I'm not sure if he was a predecessor or a successor???

Pitor for sure would have better info.


Nothing really odd about Jägermeister's post as there was ethnic cleansing in most of the border towns(Sudetenland) where the Germans were the occupying or overwhelming force.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Yugos really didn't expel the Germans but wadded them up in camps and staved them to death.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Even the German gunmakers/outworkers of
Weipert/Vejprty were expelled in 1945. All of the expulsion towns of course sourced the gunmaking centres of Suhl, Zella - Mehlis & Liège, where the Germans had been in control even prior to WWI.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Raimey, Oschatz was the successor (Nachfolger) of Kühne.

Cheers,
Wolfgang

Thanks Wolfgang so Oschatz acquired Kühne's business possibly in the late 1800s or circa 1900? My hope is to find a few adverts.

But totally off the topic but along the lines of >>K<< mechanics, there were tonnes of Kührt mechanics in Zella - Mehlis and tonnes of Kummer mechanics in Suhl but I don't know that I have ever read of one being mentioned. So many unsung mechanics that practiced their craft behind the scenes.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Not the advert I as hoping, but a 1902 listing none the less:

https://books.google.com/books?id=MZgwAA...tin&f=false

Leopold Oschatz, Fr. Kühner Nachf., Gewehrfabrik, in Stettin

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

There are nitro stamps. sort of oddly off to the sides of both barrel and visible from the bottom when the breech is closed.

Also stamped on the barrels right in front of and parallel to the breech faces are the words "PRIMA" on the left and what looks like "FLUSS STUHL" on the right. The vowels in these last two words being unclear.