I looked around for a long time for information before I bought my K1. Perhaps I can share my experience here, it is a mix of good and bad reviews. I wrote this to respond on another board regarding K1 vs Ruger#1.



I owned and sold a Merkel k1 after shooting it several hundred rounds in 7X65R, and perhaps a hundred rounds in 9.3X74R (ouch!!!).

My experience, and I am probably the most fnatic Merkelmaniac you will find. I have had over fifty Merkels, still have over a dozen in SXS and OU shotguns, rifle, double rifle, combination, and drilling configurations. I have had mausers by Merkel, and about every model made, both prewar and post war.

That said, the Merkel K1 was a major disappointment to me. I saw it at the SHOT show in Vegas, ordered it when first came out, waited for months. As soon as I saw it, held it, and then shot it, I wondered what it had that the Blaser or other single shot with the same action did not have?

Did it shoot? yes, quite good groups when hand loaded.
Was it light? Yes, it weighed 5 pounds 4 bare,
With scope weight: 6 pounds 4 with a Kahles 4 power, or Swaro 6 power fixed.

Was it handy? yes, it broke down into back pack sizes.
Did it kick? YOU BETCHA!!! with the 9.3 it was NO FUN.

How was engraving? SUCKS< these are not engraved panels, they are stamped inserts, all exactly the same, and come in boar, white tail, red stag/elk, chamois, scroll, line engraved, and perhaps a few others.

How was the Merkel name put on? No where on the rifle does it say Merkel, except on the separate stamped piece that is an inserted or applied part of the action, looks like it could equally state blaser, krieger, simson, fortuna, or any other maker. I have the impression that either Merkel also makes these for other labels (look in Frankonia catalog for seemingly identical actions by a half dozen other makers at half the cost) or others make these for Merkel.

Now the bad news: I had problems with the action/safety on mine. I have given the benefit of doubt to Merkel on this, but I had to send mine back to GSI, they redid the entire trigger group, and I do not know what else, here is what happened:

I had a spent round jam in the action. cause unknown. I was a bit physical to break the action open to extract the round. MY BAD ADMIT, but otherwise the action was bound.

then I had a situation where the loaded rifle, cocked, then uncocked, discharged when I took the safety slide off from FIRE, to SAFE, it went BANG!

Now, I keep my muzzle direction safe. but in this case, there was no way to remove a loaded round from a cocked rifle, without discharge. did not happen again, and I tried with unloaded rounds many times, but I had witnesses, no one touched the trigger. it just went off.

GSI replaced the parts, even though they could not get it to recur.

When it came back, it was fixed, I hunted with it for two elk hunts and a mule deer hunt at Kaibab.

Took shots at one huge 3pt mule deer, at what I thought was about 300 yards. After I missed first shot (it was back further in the brush than I had lasered, at 350-375 yards, It still came straight forwards towards me. But then I had to stand on tiptoes to shoot over the PJ. Meanwhile the buck and doe still came towards me. 225, 200, 175 meanwhile I was reloading, keeping my eye on the buck over the bushes.

I loaded, slid the safety forward like on all of my Merkel tang safety shotguns, and when he was just at about 160-175 yards, I held dead on his shoulder, a shot I can and have made many times, even offhand, and pulled the trigger, and it went, it went, well, it didnt went anything!!! looking down, at my used-to-be-dream-rifle, I broke it open to make sure it was a live round, and then realized it was my fault that I slid off the safety like a shotgun, and this rifle, which I had shot over a hundred times, required a slide forward, followed by the PUSH TO COCK, LET IT SLIDE BACK, then shoot. Now I had to replace the extracted round, snap shut the action, and then it was two following shots (missed both) at over 300 yards to a trotting dead away buck. My fault? yes. But that was when I decided the odds of drawing a Kaibab late season tag (less than 2%) are too long to use anything but the sure thing for Killing the quarry. I still love single shots, I will buy any Merkel single shot in the kipplaufbuchse configuration anyone can find. I just bought another drilling in the original 7X65R cartrige.

But the new action safety/cocking slide rifle design is not for me. I recall when Krieger put it on their Big 5 DGR Doubles, someone asked about when it turns to [bleep], are you gonna remember this is not your typical slide safety?

They are not for me.

The plus is if you want fast, the Jaeger inset action piece is a clever invention designed many many years ago, and it can be chambered for magnums in modern pressures. I had fun loading to bolt action pressures, but then the novelty of a $4K rifle and scope setup wore off..

What I had was a $2K rifle, with PLASTIC push-button forearm release, plastic innards, stamped "engraving" generic branding makings, and a safety/cocking slide design that this old dog could not learn as a new trick.

I sold it about three months ago. Then bought the prewar 7X65R drilling.

Lastly: If you want one, it will be a lot better shooter than a Ruger 1. But for 3-5 times the price it should be.

And it is the only design I would choose for a rimless round in a break action rifle. I would never go rimless or slide cock on a DGR.

These are all opinions.

Jamie

quote:

Originally posted by Jameister:


If you want one, it will be a lot better shooter than a Ruger 1. But for 3-5 times the price it should be. Jamie

Jamie - Thank you for your post. It was both interesting and useful.

One comment, on the portion of your post quoted above.

Your Merkel MAY have been more accurate than my Ruger No. 1 (also in 7x65-R), but I doubt it would be enough more accurate to make any practical difference in hunting. My Ruger will reliably shoot RWS H-Mantle factory loads into 5-shot 3/4" groups at 100 yards. That's good enough for me, and I love both the cartridge and the rifle.

(Granted, my rifle has a premium after-market barrel fitted by a top gunsmith, but then that was necessary to get the 7x65-R chambering anyhow...)

quote:

(Granted, my rifle has a premium after-market barrel fitted by a top gunsmith, but then that was necessary to get the 7x65-R chambering anyhow...)

Isnt that 7X65R a great round?

I remember an old story about grandpas old axe. replaced the handle three times and the head twice, Never a better one than grandpas old axe!!

Jamie