I inherited this rifle. My grandfather owned it as far back as I can remember ( I'm 58 and remember being fascinated by this thing when I was a wee thing). He never shot it nor did he ever figure out what caliber it is. It's a German action with a Harry Pope barrel. I intend to slug it and get a chamber casting and see if the old thing can be made to talk again.

As I can't post attachments, here is a link to some pictures of the rifle. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm not interested in selling or trading it. IF I can't get it to run, it'll go back on a wall where it's been for the better part of 50 years.

http://s658.photobucket.com/albums/u...Fathers%20Day/

Thanks in advance,
Willie

Welcome. That is pretty darn neat. I have seen a few of those but am far from an expert.

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MikeG

Thanks,
After slogging through about a thousand posts at several single shot forums, I found a link to a German site that someone posted. LO and BEHOLD, I found the maker.
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The Büchsenmacher Ernst Friedrich Büchel - even also outstanding contactors - developed in the year 1909 particularly for the rifle competition shooting (high-speedshoot) with the federal shooting a new system, whatever it called Concurrenz.
Here it depended on how much shot brings contactors within 2 minutes on the disk and how it reaches many rings thereby. It shot thereby at a disk, which had only eight circles, the center began however with „the 1 “. It was actually a competition, with which only enormous amounts were fired by powder and lead!
With the system Concurrenz was the technical advantage all other systems opposite that the catch block went completely downward and the empty case fell immediately to the side, so that equal a new cartridge could be introduced.

The last improved system developed Büchel before the olympic plays 1936 in Berlin, the Büchel championship can with adjustable cheek and very short firing pin way.
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Had to use an online translator hence the stilted English.

Here's a link to the page I got it from.
http://www.feuerbixler.de/

Use the navigation bar on the left and click
Feuerstutzen

and then
Systeme & Verschlüsse

The Harry Pope barrel is an intriguing twist.

NOW to figure out what it eats!! That will be an adventure I figure.

You have a really grand old schuetzen rifle. It still has its rear sight intact!

I have a couple of them and used to shoot in competition. Keep cleaning it with 0000 steel wool with oil on it.



Look under the forend for a caliber marking.

What a fine old rifle ! The action looks like a Systems Aydt, the basis for many such target rifles.
Do you have the false muzzle, with pins that fit the muzzle's hole pattern ?



If it was mine, 0000 steel wool wouldn't get anywhere NEAR it, no matter HOW much oil was on the pad !

IMHO, the Pope barrel is a treasure beyond value ! Harry M. Pope was a cutting-edge barrel maker from the 1880's well into very old age, pioneering many different rifling tecniques like gain twist & "Pope" rifling, in conjunction with choked bores.



.

Rangr44,

If you cleaned the rifle how would you do it?

The rifle is not an AYDT. He says above who made the rifle. I have a AYDT.

Here is a picture of an AYDT.

Thank you for the pic of your Aydt.

FWIW, I've found that many of the small European gunmakers copied some of the more or less standard or popular actions for their own rifle production; so just because "Joe Smith" handmade a rifle with an action that's an exact copy of, say a Martini, it doesn't make his rifle a "Smith Action".

A copy is a copy is a copy - and the rifle in the OP is just that, but I'm only experienced enough to know that Ernst Friedrich Büchel was NOT a major action designer, and was most likely exactly what he was called: Büchsenmacher, or, "riflemaker"; and not experienced enough to definitely put a finger on the action's actual name.

Here are differently actioned rifles by the same maker (Buchel) as the OP's:










I've successfully cleaned up rifles in similar condition to the one in the OP via one of two methods.

I first try the less invasive method of a complete kerosene soak, after a teardown, of course, with a mild coarse rag scrubbing while soaking (sometimes for days), or afterward.

If the finish doesn't respond to the kero clean, I then use Big 45, from Frontier Metal Cleaning:

http://www.frontiermetalcleaner.com/

Big 45 only looks like steel wool - but it isn't........................

.

If steel wool messed up the barrel it would be a much cheaper rifle the it appears to be. I use steel wool to clean plastic out of some very spendy SxS's and see no ill effect

If This Ever Comes Up For Sale, I'd Be Interested

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You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early

Wullie, You have what appears to be a Lechner action or a copy there of that has been barreled with a Pope barrel that was designed for loading the bullet from the muzzel by using a removeable false muzzel, then the case with powder and primer ws loaded from the breach. The normal Lechner action has a ski sloped top to the breach block, and yours is flat on the top. It could have been done to facilitate a different cartridge than the original action was originaly built for, or it could be a different model than my reference book details.

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Lee L.

America= Land of the Free, Because of the Brave. == May God Bless Them All.

The barrel would have originally had a "false muzzle / bullet starter" with it. Here is what they look like from one of my Pope rifles. After starting the bullet down the muzzlle, a matching wooden rod of proper length would be used to push the bullet to a final position just ahead of the case mouth.

If you look at the right side of the barrel on your rifle (about at the cartridge mouth location) you will find a "scratch mark" that is the desired location of the bullet base.

The rod length would be matched to the desired bullet so that the base was at the exact position of the mark.

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You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early

by the way ... your rifle's action is a true "Lechner" with the trigger assembly in the bottom of the breech block. (it is removable through an access cover - left side on your rifle)

That feature is "unique" to the Lechner.

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You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early

Wullie ... see PM

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You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early

In the late 70's I acquired a Nordhausen/A. Strover Scheutzen very similar to this one. It came in as a trade. It also had a H.M. Pope barrel on it. It was originally chambered for 32-40 as your's is marked. 32-40 was a very popular scheutzen round at the time. It had the bore 'freshened' by Pope sometime later and was remarked "33-40 Pope". Like yours, mine was missing the false muzzle but the sights were intact including a spirit level globe front sight. The view of the muzzle and the bit of the bore and rifling to be seen , leaves no doubt as to the Pope origins. That is Popes distinctive rifling. I sold the rifle to a Professor at RPI (I can't remember his name at the moment) who happened to stop in my shop and saw it on my office wall. He also had a Pope barreled scheutzen on a Strover/Nordhausen action. His belief was , having seen several other of these same combinations, that Pope may have imported or acquired these actions and sold a number of them. I never shot the rifle but it was used by its new owner.
Nice rifle take good care of it. I noticed on looking over the pics again that the barrel may have been set back as the caliber marking is partially obscured and restamped. The throats washed out and may have necessitated a rechamber. I will bet the chamber cast will show it to still be 32-40.
Always wished I had kept that rifle.