MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

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Ovenpaa
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MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#1 Post by Ovenpaa »

This was handed in today, the bore is around 9mm, it is rifled and has a double set triggers. Manufactured by MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg it appears to be a sporting rifle.

Has anyone come across such a thing?
German Rifle.jpg
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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#2 Post by FredB »

Typical early 20th century German sporting rifle. My sort of thing. The first thing is to establish the calibre and see if it is on the obsolete list.
More pictures would be helpful. It looks like some type of martini action, but there are a lot of mechanically different German Martinis.
If it is late 19th century, my guess would be 9,3 x 47R.
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Sim G
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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#3 Post by Sim G »

Gmeiner and Son were manufacturing from 1850 to the late 1860s in East Germany. Produced percussion pistols and sporting rifles that were either percussion or Lefaucheux system. Don’t think they made a centre fire. But being in the region of 160 years old, there no telling who did what to it down the ages.
In 1978 I was told by my grand dad that the secret to rifle accuracy is, a quality bullet, fired down a quality barrel..... How has that changed?

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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#4 Post by Christel »

It has a dog with "glowing" eyes engraved.

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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#5 Post by Ovenpaa »

SimG, Ah I would have thought it was more recent, early 1920's was my guess.

Fred, I had hoped you would spot this as it does look to be your sort of thing. Sadly the stock is in very poor order with extensive worm. It is a Martini type action and a 38splcase nigh on fits perfectly. I will take a chamber cast and see what is revealed. What I have found is it takes a .38Spl cartridge case perfectly and I could use a 38 cast bullet to slug it if needed. In the absence of any marking that chamber cast is the only way forward.

Some pictures:
IMG_5772.JPG
IMG_E5773.JPG
IMG_E5774.JPG
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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#6 Post by Ovenpaa »

I can add that it has a beautiful plum brown barrel under the stock and there is evidence of gold colour (Possibly gold leaf) all over the place.
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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#7 Post by Ovenpaa »

...and a bit more. It is 24.7"/627mm barrel with around a 1:23.5" twist on it and the bore measures at 0.376"/0.350" or 9.55mm/8.89mm groove/Land
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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#8 Post by FredB »

Looks like 380 long, which is not a common calibre in Germany.
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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#9 Post by FredB »

I have searched through Tom Rowe's Alte Scheibenwaffen volumes and can't find this action. If indeed in 380 long, then it is likely to be 1880 to 1890 as the nearly identical .360 no 5 round with its better performance was taking over by then. The groove diameter of the 360 no5 was 372 as opposed to the 375 of the 380 long. The brass of the 380 long was closer to 38 S&W---a bit fatter than 38 special. I have a rook rifle which is marked as being suitable for both calibres.

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Re: MA Gmeiner & Sohn Altenburg

#10 Post by AL8 »

the woodworm holes can be filled with super glue, then plugged with colored sawdust to blend in
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