Need it like a hole in the head, but new toy wins.

[Buckshot]

.............Got a schuetzen rifle. Sure is purty. Has a 30" heavy round barrel, chambered 32-40. Target scope blocks, but probably for some unobtanium Unertl, Lyman or Feckler I'm not about to buy! Double triggers and when set must release in fractions of an ounce. I may have to heft that up just a wee bit.





Color casehardening is washed out a bit in places. It has an extractor but doesn't eject. I guess if you're doing scheutzen and only have that ONE case ya don't want to have to chase it!



The PO had made the standoff rear sight base, which clamps on the rear scope block. Did a fine job but it's made out of aluminum and 'blued' with a magic marker, HA! Maybe he was saving weight?

[Buckshot]

..............A couple more...............



This is really NOT supposed to be shot from a bench. I'd shot this rifle off the bench several years back and you have to sit up straight with the barrel on a 2' stack of sandbags



I hope I can hold it up it weighs as much as I do. Danged if I didn't forget to take a picture of the whole rifle. Maybe I can do that tomorrow. Oh yeah, the bore is like a mirror.

....................Buckshot

[9.3X62AL]

Utterly beautiful, bud. If Marie saw the photos, she would make an offer I'm sure.

[Jon K]

Looks GREAT Rick, can't wait to see it.

You know, you could have another buttstock made for it, so you can shoot off the bench...........

Jon

[waksupi]

Great find, Rick!

[keeper89]

Need has absolutely NOTHING to do with it, brother! I would have gone for it in a heartbeat...........

[DLCTEX]

It was good to see it had a tiny scratch on the wood so it won't hurt quiet so bad if you get another. My newest gun will be so much more useful when it finally gets that first scratch. Beautiful gun! DALE

[MT Gianni]

Wow, "sure is pretty" doesn't even come close. That is ARTWORK. Gianni

[longhorn]

Aydt system action? Beautiful rifle.

[No_1]

We are going to change your name to BATMAN cause you have "all those wonderful toys"

R.

[Jon K]

Well...........How does it shoot?..............Inquiring minds want to know.....................

Jon

[Buckshot]

.............Thanks guys, I think it's a nice rifle too. The guy I bought it from shoots commercial cast. Had no idea what the groove was and had loaded 50 rounds loaded with some170gr BB plain base cast slugs lubed with some kind of moly dip stuff and nothing else. He'd apparently fired 27 so I had 33 left to get rid of. After shooting them all off on one target (except for about 4 that missed the whole board due to the trigger surprising me) I got about a 6.5" group. I have figured out too, to NOT put my finger on the trigger until I am really ready to shoot

At home I cleaned it and pulled out maybe 40 grains of lead flakes, wires, and dust over about 4 patches after using a bristle brush and Hoppe's. I then drove a Lyman 323471 lube-sized (.323") slug through the barrel and got a measurement of .313" x .320". Actually, according to my Brown & Sharps the groove appears to be .3198" to .320" miking around the slug and up and down it's length. It has 6 narrow lands and wide grooves.

I will need to find out what size boolit the chamber will accept. A fired case, checking with the dial guestimators, is a smidge over .318". The dies I got with the rifle are Lee RGB's. It will be edjumacashunal to run one up into the size die to see what it sizes to, just for fun. Probably about .316" if it's intended for a .321" slug! I'll probably have to back the sizer off several threads and partially size for now till I decide what I'm going to do.

Longhorn, yes I think you're right in it's being an Aydt (type) action. Other then '32-40' on the barrel and a small, sideways capital 'B' on the right front of the action there are no markings on it at all. I doubt the barrel is original to the action.

There is a threaded hole with nothing in it on the right front of the action, and you can see barrel threads in it. Maybe a switch barrel deal originally? There is a piece of metal dovetailed in across the top of the breechblock but I haven't tried to move it out to see what it may be for. A switchable firing pin for CF and RF? Just a guess as I really don't have a clue

................Buckshot

[Duckiller]

Looked at a double triggered 45/70 once. Clerk at the gunstore delighted in setting the second trigger and handing it (unloaded) to a customer. It was extremely difficult not to put my finger into the trigger guard at first, after 3 or 4 times I figured out that if you didn't want it to go "click" you didn't get any part of your hand near that set trigger. Somewhere I read or was told that you don't pull double set triggers but you gently tap the side of the front trigger when you want it to go bang. Saw the 45/70 just before I went on vacation several years ago and it was sold by the time I got home. Enjoy it looks like a lot of fun.

[Jon K]

Rick,

32 cal Breech Seat Boolits:Have a gander


236g Jones Breech Seat Spitzer216g Jones Breech Seat Spitzer190g French Breech Seat200g Breech Seat Semi-Spitzer
218g Breech Seat Semi-Spitzer190g Pope Breech Seat180g German Heel Schuetzen

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Beautiful gun, Buckshot, but it isn't an Aydt. You don't have a photo of the action open, so I can't be sure, but it might be a Kettner. The exposed breech block is too long, and the action too short for an Aydt. Your breech block probably drops down, like a High Wall, Stevens 44-1/2, or Farquharson. The Aydt is a swinging block action, not a falling block. The breech block is "T" shaped, hinged on a pin in the front of the action, which is several inches long. On the left side, a "regular" Aydt, has two curved outside levers, the forward one to take the gun down, and the rear one the extractor. The "Reformed" Aydt, has an inside extractor, but still has the take down lever. An Aydt can be taken completely down without tools, the lower tang holding the whole trigger group which resembles one on a percussion rifle. Tomorrow morning, I'll take my Aydt out and shoot some photos. They're really remarkable in the way they're assembled like a Chinese puzzle.
My Aydt, like your rifle, is unmarked, and probably a "Guild Rifle" Back then, gunsmiths all belong to a guild, and apprentices to German gunsmiths, as part of their initiation, had to build a fine rifle to present to the guild for inspection, in order to be accepted as a gunsmith. These rifles were typically unmarked, and of very fine quality, since any poor ones were destroyed.

Morgan

[Lloyd Smale]

very cool!!

[Johnw...ski]

Very nice rifle, you will find that once you get the sights set up they will rival a scope at shorter ranges so a scope is really not needed.

You were also lucky enough to get it in an interesting chambering.

John

[Morgan Astorbilt]

My Aydt schuetzen rifle.





This is a typical Aydt system Guild Schuetzen Rifle in original 8.15x46R. The differences in the action design from Rick's are obvious.



These are the external takedown and extractor levers. The lever at the rear of the lower tang which resembles a double shotgun lever, releases the lower tang, which is the trigger plate, and allows the internal parts to be removed without tools. Notice also, the method of attaching the fore arm, identicle to ML rifles.


The action open.


The lower tang removed. Swinging the forward takedown lever downward, will
allow it to be removed,releasing the extractor lever,and breechblock retaining pin.


The above parts removed.

This is the block that holds the Swiss diopter rear sight. I use it with a “T” piece to lever my breech seater.

This external dovetail on the octagon barrel, is used to mount a scope or a middle sight. One of the previous owners foolishly drilled and tapped it for scope blocks. I use dovetail clamp-on adapters with Unertyl blocks to hold my Balvar 24. ASSRA rules for "Original German Rifles Class", don't allow any alteration, scopes have to be attached without screws, using original fitments, or some clamping arrangement.

(More below)

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Too many photos, here's the rest of the story

The small sling swivels were not there to use a sling while shooting. Shooters typically took public transportation to matches, carrying the guns on their backs, along with their shooting kits. Since these rifles were loaded by breech seating, the same case was reloaded for each shot. DWM sold bullets that were packed singly, along with a powder charge and primer. This allowed a shooter entering a match to purchase just what he needed, as if he were purchasing cartridges.




The apprentice who built this rifle spared no effort to impress the guild. Every exposed metal piece is engraved, down to the last screw!


Another shot of the beautiful walnut. It never fails to amaze me, the difference in what skills it took to be called a "Gunsmith" back there and then, and here and now. Truly humbling.

Morgan

[Sig shooter]

Sweet ,,, Does it have a date ? is it a factory Haenel action . De Haas writes it was the most popular action used .

Edit --- I just viewed up a few posts for the answer.