I received an email from one of my wholesalers yesterday and wound up ordering two Merkel R15 rifles. They are synthetic stocked in 6.5X55 Swedish and 9.3X62. I know practically nothing about them but they should be an easy sell in those calibers. Had anyone heard about them or seen one?
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Posts: 2176 | Location: Tennessee | Registered: 18 February 2007
From what I can tell, I believe these are re-branded Haenel Jaeger 10 rifles. (Haenel is a division of Merkel.) Have not seen one in person, as the Merkel version has just been released and I have not seen any of the Haenel products here in the U.S. Sounds like they are very well made, accurate, and attractively priced.
Both Sauer and Mauser recently introduced down-market offerings, in the Sauer 101 and Mauser M12. With Merkel's recent venture into the straight-pull market with the Helix, could the R15 be a lower-priced version?
Posts: 20171 | Location: Very NW NJ up in the Mountains | Registered: 14 June 2009
Originally posted by Biebs: Both Sauer and Mauser recently introduced down-market offerings, in the Sauer 101 and Mauser M12. With Merkel's recent venture into the straight-pull market with the Helix, could the R15 be a lower-priced version?
Could be. The R15 is not a straight pull but has a 60-degree bolt lift. From the pricing I've seen (~ $700 for the basic walnut stocked version), these seem to almost be targeting the Tikka T3. The synthetic stock model may be even less, not sure as of now. One difference I noticed is that the Haenel-branded models all come with iron sights but the Merkel rifles do not.
