Oberndorf sporting actions in the 1911 Alfa catalog

[Dan Patch]

The 1911 Alfa catalog has everything from tent stakes to flintlock muskets, and that includes brand new Mauser 98 actions to build sporting rifles around. They offer the actions in four variations: item RG22, at 90 marks is available "mit Abzug und Druckpunkt"; RG23, also 90 marks, has a "nicht ausgefraestem Stecherkaestchen"; RG24 at 92 marks features an "ausgefraestem Stecherkaestchen"; top of the line, at a hundred marks, is RG25 "mit Stecher".

So, the first features the standard military style two-stage trigger, and the last one comes with set triggers. The second action listed has not been fitted with set triggers and lacks, it appears, some preliminary machine work needed before they can be fitted. Action number three seems to have that preliminary machine work done so that the triggers can be installed more quickly. Any thought on the actual differences between items two and three and what sort of triggers they were intended to accommodate? Dan

[Steve Whitley]

"Not milled for" versus "milled for." (trigger box)

Steve

[mike ford]

Steve's translation is correct, but it makes me wonder what "milling" was done, whether it was to fit in individual components of the set triggers( as Mauser did), or to fit in a double set trigger assembly( as was commonly done).Til now, I ided "built in" dst as "Mauser", and the set in assy. as "Others". Is this incorrect? Axel, do you have an answer?
Mike

[Axel E]

First, not every catalog option was made and sold in great numbers. Quite often such offers were just for testing market and demand. In 1911 the Mauser commercial sporters were still developing, see the 1912 change in stock styling.
The options RG 22 and RG 25 are well known and regularly seen.
RG 22 came with the common military style two stage single trigger, preferred by British gunmakers.
RG 25 has the well-known Mauser double set trigger, preferred by German gunmakers.

RG 23 and RG 24 are options I have never encountered by me. The "Stecherkästchen = hair trigger case" is the hollowed out lower tang above the triggerguard. Apparently some gunsmithes were supposed to prefer the typical pre-WW1 Suhl "aftermarket" dst assembly with V-spring and separate housing, made by their own set trigger makers, needing a big rectangular hole milled or filed into the lower tang. So the ALFA catalog offered an action already milled out to take such an assembly, RG 24. If such an action comes up it is hardly distinguishable from a single trigger action like RG 22 fitted with an aftermarket dst.
Just in case there were experimenters with own ideas on trigger design, maybe a single set trigger, option RG 23 was offered. Here the lower tang was left solid , not hollowed out from top, to allow the gunsmith to bore, mill and file it according to his own ideas.
I have yet seen options RG 23 and 24 offered nowhere save this 1911 Alfa catalog.

[Dan Patch]

Axel: Thank you for your very helpful response. I had more than once wondered what the ALFA catalog was offering, but I gave it little thought until I removed the barreled action from an old German 98 Mauser sporter I had come to suspect might have been built on a pre-1914 Oberndorf sporting action. In fact the action turned out to be a commercial one, numbered in the twenty-seven thousands, though the proofing information seemed to suggest it was proofed perhaps about 1911 or '12.

What caught my eye in checking over the action below the woodline was the fact the sear and sear lever gave (to my eyes at least) the appearance of being original to the action and matching by the final two digits of the serial, the set trigger assembly seemed out of place. The two triggers themselves were polished white and seemed in keeping with original Mauser work, but the mechanism itself looked "artisanal"--filed out on a bench essentially as handwork. Beauty is as beauty does, of course, and the triggers still work very well. I would think this action might be RG 23, as I can't see that the triggerguard has been cut through to allow the bottom of the trigger case to protrude flush with the bottom of the triggerguard/magazine box unit.

Had I known I would see something like this when I took the rifle apart I would have at least made some careful sketches, but it needed to go back together. Removing the barreled action from the stock on this one is a little tricky, because it has a horn triggerguard, anchored to a stub of the front of the original triggerguard bow and held down at the rear by a wood screw. It's not fun to take apart, and even less fun to reassemble. Thanks again, Dan