doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea but......

Do you mean to Officers of the GDR army? The GDR wasn't established until 1948-1949. Suhl was in the Soviet zone. I would have thought guns like these would have been made strictly for the Soviets at this time? If so, that's understandable, in light of the massive potential promotions during the war for the Red Army. That's what massive expansion and 14,000,000 dead and missing will do to an army. (officially listed as 8,700,000, but disputed) Not to mention Stalin's purge of Red Army officers in 1941...

Ken

Almost all Suhl made guns up to mid-1950s went to USSR.

As far as I know, there were three types of "Suhl Best" guns made around 1945-1951
- Parts of general order for making sporting guns, as part of 'reparation of war damages'. The Suhl gunmaking guilt was basically told to go and make as many guns as they could - the demand was insatiable and hunting was an important part of the economy. Mostly they were plane Jane guns, but some higher grades were produced too.

- "Special order" placed by the USSR military commandment of the occupational zone, as gifts for high-ranking officers. This order went through Otto Reif initially.

- "bread guns", ordered privately by individual Soviet officers for personal use; these orders were often paid in military rations, thus the name.

Make perfect sense. This is one of those guns that knowing the history of would be fascinating. I wonder if it came out of Russia?

Truly hideous ......They should offer that to Russian Oligarch Barron. They love that kind of stuff.