Anyone know anything about the firm Abesser and Merkel?
I just bought a 30/06 with their name on the barrel.
Regulated for 220 grn. bullet so the barrel says.
Merry Christmas to all!

Since I bought this rifle I have seen photos of a 7 Mag and 375 H&H. Evidently these rifles were put together in the 20's and 30's and they all had first class features. Now I would like to find more so I could learn more about them. They offered shotguns and drillings too but I am just interest in the bolt guns.

MERKEL MERKEL HISTORY During the course of its existence, Merkel has been traded under a variety of names, including E.A. Merkel, Merco, Abesser & Merkel, B. Merkel, and Gebrüder Merkel. Most of these names were used by descendants of the family patriarch, Friedrich Ernst Ferdinand Merkel.
At the end of WWII, the Merkel company was initially taken over by American troops, but then after approx. 3 months, it was turned over to the Russians for the duration of their occupation. Once the communist German government was established, the factory was owned by the government until Germany was reunited. The East German economy, like that of most former Soviet bloc countries, suffered due to lack of capitalization and from very restrictive gun laws.
Merkel was first managed by the "Treuhand", the government trustee that tried to find new owners for all East German commerce and industry. Among the applicants who had an interest in taking over the remaining Suhl gun industry was Sturm, Ruger & Co., together with members of the Simson family, who owned the biggest gun factory in Suhl before the Nazis came to power. Their offer was rejected in favor of a group of investors who enriched themselves, and went out of business after only one year.
The "Treuhand" then turned the company over to a bank and the Austrian Steyr-Mannlicher Company circa 2001. A few years later, H&K took over the company and expanded it. They had 126 employees in 2003, and are now at 171 employees. Because of H&K's engineering and marketing, Merkel became profitable again and expanded into the Eastern Europe and US marketplaces. The company went back to the original name Merkel, and bought the business and facilities of GSI, located in Trussville, AL.
During 2007, Merkel was sold to Caracal International LLC, located in the United Arab Emirates.
For many years Merkel shotguns were unfairly disadvantaged in this country because of the politics of importing firearms from communist bloc countries (goods were subject to a 65% non-favored nation tax). With the reunification of Germany in 1991, this trademark became more competitive domestically. Merkel continues to manufacture high quality guns in Suhl, Germany.
Beginning in 1995, Merkel serialization employed an alphanumeric date code for year of manufacture, making it difficult to determine year of manufacture by serial number. Higher grade models (including the 300 Series) continue to be manufactured one at a time by hand, with less than 30 being mfg. annually.
Many Merkel collectors are now categorizing older production guns into three different categories. The first is guns made before 1962, when the Berlin Wall was created. The second is the GDR guns (German Democratic Republic). The last is after the Berlin wall came down (post-1991). Premiums are paid on pre-WWII manufacture and some GDR guns. All pre-war guns may have different actions such as square, half round, and square reinforced, etc. These older production models should be appraised by a knowledgeable person, since there are a lot of things to consider when evaluating these earlier Merkels. Some guns made up for the Nürnberg and Leipzig trade shows have top quality workmanship, especially the engraving.
The engraver's signature will appear on all factory engraved Merkels manufactured since 1992.