have a suhl manufactured drilling with the fractur style "SS" indicating sauer und sohn. has proofs of the 1912-1939 era. have drug it thru every forum on the net for about a year trying to get close to a manu date. as is typical for the suhl arms, it doesn't have any date markings. i've learned that suhl only began date coding in the mid to late 20's. i've also been told that the retailer, adolf loesche, closed his retail branch in suhl about 1926. the rib is marked "adolf loesche magdeburg hannover". it would seem then this arm was manu after 1926 as suhl is not listed on the rib as a loesche location. to compound the issue, it is an under lever break--pretty old fashion to have been manu after 1926. the only other clue is the rifle scope--a carl zeiss jena zielvier with a ser # of 21xxx. does any one have idea to a listing of zeiss ser #s and year of manu? any other info or thoughts that could shed some light?

Try to mail a question to Mrs.Hammes at the Sauer factory in Germany: Hammes@sig-sauer.de She has hepled me with some questions - fast and friendly replies.
Maybe they still keep the old archives from Suhl, although very much was destroyed during the WWII.

Best regards,

Fritz Kraut

thanks very much. will do.--cb

[ 09-15-2002, 19:10: Message edited by: rackettc ]