Photos of the drilling and the proofmarks would be really helpful! Burgsmüller, trademark "Burgo", not only made guns to their own patented designs, but also had guns made for them by the Suhl and Zella-Mehlis guntrade. For a start, here is something I wrote some time ago when questioned about the Kreiensen gunmakers:
The village or small town of Kreiensen am Harz = at the foot of the Hercynian mountains , halfway between Hanover and Kassel, was a fine place for any shops in times when anyone travelled by railway: Kreiensen is the junction from the former east-west Brunswick state railway to the north-south Hannoverian/Prussian state railway, so there are two outsized 19th century stations built side by side. Two Brunswick farmers: "Heard your youngest son is going to America? That' a long way to go!" "Yes, I guess he has to change trains at Kreiensen." I myself changed there often enough in the 1960s. Often you had some waiting there, so there was ample time for passengers to do some shopping
The Kreiensen is best known in guncrank circles as the home of the Burgsmueller gun factory and mail order house. The Burgsmueller company since 1876 was a very inventive company with many patents not only on guns, but also on gunmaking-related machinery like deep hole drilling and rifling. Together with their competitor Stukenbrok in nearby Einbeck they pioneered the world wide mail order business on guns and other sporting equipment about 1900. Burgsmueller's 1930 catalog is available as a reprint from the GGCA's bookstore,see
www.germanguns.com . The company still exists in it's original location, but out of the control of the family, as a precision machine producer. The remains of a gun department were closed down about 1990, and due to political correctness their home page does not even mention the fact that they ever had anything to do with guns, see the English version of their home page:
www.burgsmueller.de During the first World War Burgsmueller was a major producer of armament for the German army. They even held a patent for a trench mortar. After the end of WWI in 1918 all major German arms factories had to lay off most of their workers. Under fhe provisions of the Versailles "peace" treaty only one wespons factory, Simson, was allowed to produce arms. All other "name" factories until the mid-1920s existed under close supervision of allied disarmament comissions and the fear of being expropriated by them. Small, pure sporting no-name gunmakers did not suffer such stringent controls.
Here we come to W. Voss and Haselhorst & Co.
Wilhelm Voss opened shop in 1919. He even published a catalog appearing like an abbreviated carbon copy of a pre-war Burgsmueller catalog. He is last mentioned in 1940. Perhaps he was one of those Burgsmueller workers forced to live on their own after 1918; or perhaps "W. Voss" was only a brand name used by Burgsmueller, like Glenfield by Marlin?
The story of "Haselhorst & Co., Harzer Waffenindustrie = Hercynian Arms Industry" is more clear by now: Mr. Haselhorst was the father-in-law of one of the Burgsmuellers, and the "Co." was the Burgsmueller family! So it was nothing else then a brand name or mock company, created to disguise the fact of Burgsmueller producing and exporting sporting guns again. Haselhorst & Co. is documented for 1922 and 1924, according to family tale after only about 5 years there was no reason anymore for it's existence and it was liquidated.
