I ran into a fellow in Tx today, that has a very neat little combo gun in 16g/6.5x65r. Very trim and light, I quess it weighs 6 to 6.5 pounds.I judge the condition to be about 80 to 85%. He would like to sell it, but is unsure of a fair price. It is a handmade item, and I was unsure of the maker. If anyone would like to discuss this with him. PM me and I will give you his email. I do not know him, but he seemed like a strait shooter, type of guy. [IMG:left] [/IMG]

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I amnot a dealer but I lived in Europe for 11 years, have seen and handled a lot of these older guns. This looks like many guns I have seen from Collath.

IMHO....this will need a special buyer. Is that a 16/70 or 16/65 shotgen chamber? The 6.5x65R is not everyone's cup of tea. Normal loads are in the 108-to 130 grain area at 3000-3500 fps...a very nice 300+ yd cartridge. What is the barrel condition like? Plan on handloading because commercial loads are hard to come buy in this country (I think Old Western Scrounger currently has a couple of boxes of RWS). I suspect this gun may have been rechambered...take a look. Very few of these underlever combo guns of this vintage were chambered in the hotter cartridges (6.5x65R, 6.5x68, the v Hofe calibers, etc). Was the gun reproofed?

The gun appears to have an older style "Aufschubmantage" (slide on mount). Some experimentation may be needed to find some kind of clamp on mount that will accomodate a scope, otherwise adding swing mounts will be costly.To find a period slide on mount, you will need a contact in Germany most likely.

Nice old piece...IMO, there is a very small market for such guns...usually tinkerers and those that appreciate craftsmanship...they are often also fly fishermen

Looks very interesting. I had not seen an under lever combination gun built like that one.

Has that Ruger Red Label "bar in wood" type situation going on as well.

I wonder if this is a student gun from Suhl or Ferlach?

Did you get it apart to look at the proof markings?

I would send photos of it to Harald Wolf at Hatari Times. I find when I can't figure something out from one of my German Language gunbooks Harold always knows.

Yes it has proof marks, but I paid little attention too them. If anyone needs to know more PM me, and I will put you in contact with the owner.

For those of us who have handeled these types of ventage guns you start to see subtle earmarks that will lead us to surmise the origin of the gun. We can also be completely wrong about it also with no more info than these pics.

Haveing said that there are some things about this gun that makes me think Suhl. The acantis leaf engraveing looks a whole lot like a 1930's vintage Suhler I own made by Emil Demb. Not saying he is or isn't the gunmaker on this one but It could be the same engraver or one of his apprentises. The fairly plain but dark wood also looks like the norm from Suhl pre ww2.
Many times a gun like this will be marked from a differant town but a quick look at a map often you will see that it's not far from Suhl and is likely were the gunmaker served his apprenticeship.
The underlever action on this is fairly unique but I wouldn't presume the ventage based on that. It could be old or not. Many gunmakers to this day still build guns on underlever actions and hammer guns as well. Schiering in Ferlach builds a lot of underlever guns even in real high pressure belted mag cartridges. Nearly all of the Ferlach makers build hammer guns today and they build some prity cool BBF's with hammers.
I still think that this thing is a Suhler even with all the Ferlach comparisons. A quick look at the proofs will tell even to the untrained eye. It will have the Suhl mark with that guy with the hammer and anvil or what ever that is I don't remember or even more likeley it will just be marked Suhl somewhere. Don't mistake a dealers name as a maker though. I have a Merkel double rifle marked "Hommelshiem Dortmund" on the barrel this is a dealers mark on the bottom of the reciver it's marked "Oskar Merkel Suhl"