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While cleaning my drilling after the completion of the deer hunting season, I was reminded that it has a proof mark that I have not been able to identify. The gun was built by Franz Merkel and proofed in Zella Mehlis in February of 1941, so it was proofed under the then-new Proof Law of 1940. The first photo shows the markings on the rifle barrel. First, the Eagle/N nitro mark, the 241 date (February 1941) and the heart-with-a-fir-tree-inside mark of Zella Mehlis. The next photo shows the marks on the shotgun barrels. The first one is, I think, a crowned eagle which signifies the first preliminary proof of the barrel. The next two marks are the ones that have me puzzled. Does anyone know what the marks are, and what they represent? The next photo is the marks on the shotgun barrel flats, which are 16 gauge, 70mm chamber length, and the Eagle/N nitro proof. The final photo is of the other markings which are Franz Merkel’s name, and the mark of Udo Anschutz (his father-in-law), in whose shop the gun was probably made.
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