Not mine.:-(

German Heeren Single Shot. Set trigger, Mannlicher stock. Claw mounted steel scope.

Very nice

What caliber?

unconfirmed.. but I think it's 8mm mauser.

rich

Yep. Used to see a number of such rifles at the Rod & Gun Club at Erding air Force Station, Germany. A few were in 8.15X46R caliber. Good, strong action, too!

El Deguello: any word as to how well those Heeren actions functioned? De Hass wrote that extraction was a problem, and indeed the leverage is quite poor, but I've wondered if with the milder cartridges this would even be an issue.

It's a very compact action. I like how the entire lock work drops out the bottom. Gunsmiths must like this feature when trying to work the sear angles. The forward position of the trigger makes for a shorter overall length of the gun (for a given barrel length).

oooooooooooo! wet my pants.................
NICE!

I'm glad someone likes that one. I'm more than a little partical to singleshots, but that is just plain ugly. Very ornately and finely crafted ugly even.

Brent

Im gonna have to agree with Brent. The trigger gaurd is just to ugly for me to get excited about.

Brett

The Heeren's trigger guard is "form follows function." There's beauty in what it offers, not in how it looks.

asdf,
There are a lot of mighty functional trigger guards that offer much better form. And I really don't need to stop there in critiquing its form. The entire receiver has all the loveliness of a double bottom plow. Actually, no it has about half as much lovelyness as that. That is is functional is rather irrelevant when considering the fact that there are dozens of equally functional rifles that are not 1/10 as painful to cast one's eyes upon.

No, it's ugly and there is no excuse for it.

Brent

Brent, other than the contour of the receiver ring (esp. that round flat on the top), I think it a rather nicely shaped receiver. The only pain I get from its shape is the thought of having to match the wood to all those curves, and in the specimen shown, the wood work is very nicely matched to the contours -- beautiful! I agree there's too much ornamentation on this sample, of course. 100% coverage with engraving seems a bit silly to me, if only because it makes cleaning not so easy. To me, engraving is to disguise odd contours and exposed pins, etc. A plain Hepburn isn't very pretty, but I've seen ones with limited engraving I though quite handsome. ("Disguise odd contours" -- perhaps the engraver felt as you do?)

The trigger guard must accomodate the hammer spur to the rear and the trigger to the front. The two lobes needed could have been more gracefully joined, but I certainly don't feel the bile rising in my throat over this minor aesthetic flaw. Perhaps it's just the engineer in me. I see the outside as reflecting what's on the inside, and liking the insides, perhaps I'm forgiving too much.

asdf,
to each his own. If it looks good to you, it's good. That is what makes the world go round. Hepburns, in their ugliest configuration - which is pretty damn ugly, look like a swan next to this thing - but that's just me. I also can't imagine why any human being would ever own a bolt rifle, much less swoon over one. There is no accounting for taste.


Brent

I've often thought the trigger guard would look a bit cleaner if the cocking spur and it's loop in the guard were removed. There are other ways to do a safety, and I imagine the cocking spur as done isn't too easy to use anyway. I also imagined the top tang removed and a through bolt employed, possibly simplifying the rear face of the receiver some.

We do agree on one point: I just can't imagine swooning over a bolt action. They are pure utilitarian, no grace at all. Practical as can be, but ugly.

Years ago tried out a pair of Heerens by Glaser (or is it Glazer?) of Zurich, gorgeous rifles, .30'06 and .220 Swift, had to kick the lever with my foot to get them to extract.

The French gunmaker Alain Vaussenat modified the Heeren action to address extraction issues and his rifles have almost the same profile as the traditional Heeren minus the problems. He is a very nice man to e-mail and I have had the benefit of corresponding with him in the past.