Here is my take on the gun, which is not very different from Raimey's. I believe it was built by "luck" using parts from Sauer, for a customer, "to order". When my friend Walter Grass built a gun for a customer, he applied his stamp in the same location as the "Luck stamp". His stamp included his name, but Luck's was their logo. I don't believe Sauer put it together and finished it for "the trade" because when they did that, they usually applied their "Wildman" and crown marks to the barrel flats. I believe it was made before Suhl started marking the proof dates in 1923(this guess includes all the other estimated dates). I don't think the lack of a steel butt plate makes much difference to the idea that the gun was built by "Luck" as a horn buttplate could have been ordered by the customer. Oh. it slipped my mind that in addition to the bore diameter and case length being shown in mm stamped by the proof house (post 1912) it unusually has the cartridge's nominal name plainly engraved by a different hand (8x58,5 S S). This could have been done by the maker or by someone else, at any time later, at the request of the original or subsequent owner. This was not required until the 1939 law but was sometimes done for clarification.
Mike
Last edited by Der Ami; 08/06/24 09:46 AM.