Haenel Aydt to share

[Pentz]

New member here, and new to German SS rifles, unfortunately, late in life. However, I was blessed in finding this one and am posting here in the spirit of sharing. No, I'm not looking valuation; I'm a dedicated cast bullet shooter and this one is my blessing. It came out of a pawnshop in Spokane, WA. It had a brass name tag affixed with period sisal twine, stamped with "A. Apel". I'm trying to find more information on the owner; there are a number of Apels in NE Washington state.
The barrel was proofed in August 1926. It is a first model Aydt, with excellent color case-hardening and minimal decor, consisting of punch circle stamping and incising. It is unusual, to me at least, in that it has integrity of all parts; the wood is penciled with the SN, and the barrel, rear sight, action, trigger assembly and butt plate are all original stamped matching. Complete disassembly (guided by DeHaas) revealed abundant dried grease and oil varnish. It did not appear to have seen much use due to minimal wear on the metal to metal parts. The bore is mint. The sternkorn front sights are intact, and the rear diopter has a single aperture.
Function is flawless. The set trigger releases with a thought. Cases were made from cutting down and fire-forming 32-40 brass, and with incorrect, breech-seated ersatz bullets over 12.5 gr of 4227 it will hold the black of a SR-1 target at 100 yards. I've slugged the bore and chamber, and have ordered a proper stop-ring bullet mold specific for the bore from Accurate; should be here in a few weeks, and then I can get down to some serious load development.
At 68 my vision is not up to this rifle and I've ordered a dovetail scope adapter from Steve Earle. I've a Lyman STS and a Winchester B5 for serious load development but it shoots so well I may just have fun with the original sights.
Enjoy, and thanks for offering this forum for those of us with much to learn. And yes, I've got the first volume of Alte Scheibenwaffen in hand; what a superb volume!! Two more to go..
More pics at http://s12.photobucket.com/user/Finn...?sort=3&page=1
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[sharps4590]

Wow Pentz!!! Lovely rifle!!! Congrats on a nice acquisition! As with yourself I recently acquired my first Schuetzen rifle and Volume 1 of "Alte Scheibenwaffen". My rifle is older than yours and lacks the "dinner plate" cheek rest and unfortunately, evidently mine has perhaps been re-bored and re-rifled or freshed out and re-chambered to an unknown straight taper cased cartridge. No one really knows. I'm waiting on dies from CH-4D before I continue load development. So glad yours is shooting well for you!

And, welcome to the GCCA site!!

Vic

[mike ford]

Pentz,
Welcome, we are glad to have you with us. If you could post photos of all the proof marks/makers marks, it is possible we may learn something else about your rifle. The name A. Apel is very interesting. The founder of the German Gun Collectors Assn. is named Apel (Dietrich) and the name Apel is well known in Germany, as the maker of sighting equipment for rifles, especially scope mounts. Ernst Apel Wuerzburg (EAW) is well known in the field.

[Axel E]

Mike, "Apel" is a really frequent name in Germany, see this map
http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/apel.html It shows more than 100 Apels (deep red) living in my district Göttingen alone. There must be hundreds "A.Apel" living in Germany.
I don't dare to relate it to Dietrich or Ernst.

[Pentz]

Barrel proofs and marks. There are a number of Apels in NE Washington. I almost fear following up to find the rifle was filched from old great-grandpa's closet....:-)
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[mike ford]

Pentz,
The proof marks indicate it was proofed as a rifle(single projectile proof crown G) with a 7.7mm bore(not groove or bullet) diameter and went through a view proof(crown U) in August 1926, possibly in Suhl. At this time, it should have the case length marked, but does not. It was also proofed as a rifle with 7.7mm bore and 46mm case length( 8.15x46R Norm.)and view proof in Jan. 1928. The ledger number 513, indicates this proof was likely performed in Zella-Mehlis. There is no "Repair Proof", therefore no obvious reason for a second proof. From dents, etc. at the barrel/receiver junction, the barrel may have been taken from rifle and installed on another in Jan.1928. There is absolutely no proof of this, it is only a possibility.
Mike

[Steve Whitley]

Could the letters in the oval (after the serial number) possibly be for Udo Anschutz?
Steve

[mike ford]

Steve, I wondered myself if it was one of the Anschutzs, but it looked like a "J" to me. I can see how a mis-stamped "U" could look like a "J", but a stamp like this would likely be one piece. In this case, if it were mis-stamped, the oval would be faint. As always, I may be wrong.
Mike

[Pentz]

When I can find the time I 'll take better pics of the stampings in question and of the barrel-receiver junction. Lots of range work and travel coming up so will
be as timely as possible. Thanks for the comments - really interesting forensics!

[DreyseM65]

Very nice Schützen rifle! I look forward in hearing about your load development and results. I am also eager to hear about your mounting of a scope as I would consider that as well, since to date my only experience with a 8.15 was at 200 yards with a scope.

[Pentz]

I received my Steve Earle scope mount adapter, it is a fine piece of tooling and well worth the price. I chose the aluminum and it is feather light. Also took more pics of the barrel markings. The history of the barrel is of some interest to me and all observations are welcome. Looking forward to hitting the range with the proper length cases, stop ring bullets and a STS 20x mounted.
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[Pentz]

More photos20160227_110104_resized.jpg20160227_110133_resized.jpg20160227_110203_resized.jpg

[Peter K]

A very nice rifle. I am sure most readers were amazed at the great photographic skills you have developed to show in great detail and clarity all of the markings on this rifle. I would think that a small article on your techniques would be very helpful to any of our readers that wish to post pictures of their rifles.
Peter K

[yamoon]

I 2nd that idea.
Mike

[Pentz]

A very nice rifle. I am sure most readers were amazed at the great photographic skills you have developed to show in great detail and clarity all of the markings on this rifle. I would think that a small article on your techniques would be very helpful to any of our readers that wish to post pictures of their rifles.
Peter K

Pshaw...unlike the old days with my SLR and macro lens, today I gratefully use my Samsung S4. Instant feedback, any good android will do. The trick is to use a good light, and neutral background so that the lens will focus on the subject and not the background. Editing programs are available on any laptop to provide the appropriate resizing and highlighting. Wish I could make it more complicated but after some practice it becomes dead nutz easy, just like the path to Carnegie Hall ;-)