doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com 16 ga by l. oppenaur

pls advise any insights you may have regarding this fine Austrian made gun...

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...enauer.cfm?gun_id=103286280&cdn_bp=1

1st, I really do not have any knowledge of firearms merchant Leopold Oppenauer of Ried, Austria( I assume it is Ried im Innkreis??).




I can't really read the preliminary datastring on the lower rib, but it looks to be dated in the late 1920s? If so, Austria, and a bit later Hungary, had a rules change in 1929 where the new Austrian Proof Rules appeared on August 14th, 1929 and became effective on September 1st, 1929. So this may be a transitional gun as far as proof rules go.

Initially in 1882, then June 23, 1891, the Austro-Hungarian Empire cobbled together a set of proof rules to compete w/ the Big 3 of Europe, namely Belgium, England & France who had proof laws. A multi barrel gun like this one would have been subjected to 3 proof efforts, and maybe 4 if semi-smokeless is considered. First the single tubes were proofed to prevent loosing the whole lot later on in the process. If the single barrel failed, it was sawed in a couple pieces & sent back. If it passed then the script EL in a cipher was applied @ the proof facility. Originally, maybe in 1882, the 1st Proof consisted of igniting 2/3rds of the weight of a spherical piece of lead, with maybe a little windage(0.2mm??) in powder ahead of a lead cylinder(may have migrated to a ball??)) with a hemispherical head. Now this was not 16 bore, but a rough tube with a smaller diameter. Should the tube survive the effort, then it was stamped & sent back to the mechanic to join the tubes.


Worn by a tube that successfully passed the 1st Proof Test

1st Proof Effort for a tube destined to be a 16 Bore:

9.6 grammes of powder(Black I assume??) and a 57.6 gramme Ball

For the 2nd Proof Effort w/ the tubes joined and the Preliminary Datastring was applied forward on the lower rib.

8.0 grammes of powder and a 48.0 gramme Ball

And the Coat of Arms of the province of Carinthia was applied. Note this one stamp covers effort on both joined tubes.

The 3rd Proof was sometimes inspection and sometimes:

6.4 grammes of powder and a 38.4 grammes of Shot(No. 12 of theirs, which was 2,5mm and I believe about the same as our #7.5.



And a similar stamp was applied. The above is an early version and the one on the flats of the subject gun looks like a throwback??

Again, this covers effort on both tubes. & I'm quite certain that the Final Datastring was applied here - 1931 for this one.

Then you have the New & Improved amendment of August 23rd, 1899 that added semi-smokeless, which was to be 50% over the service / standard load of 4 1/2 grammes to 5 grammes of powder & 30 grammes of shot.

The NP sub F was applied noting Smokeless Proof. So theoretically, this 1931 double was subjected to 4 Proof Efforts.


Interesting sideplates & adornment, especially the addressing on the fences.





Post 1929, 16 Bore and larger were supposed to be exposed to 12,800 P.S.I. whilst smaller than 16 Bore experienced 14,200 P.S.I.


Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

As a side note, & just a conversation piece as I have yet to see the mark, but there was a Vorrat/Vorratszzeichen/On-Hand/On Dealer's Shelves mark that was the Double Headed Imperial Eagle w/ a >>V<< on the Breastplate. Even longarms that were close to completion on the day the law became effective had the option of the Vorrat stamp. But within a year, the weapon had to be submitted to the Proof House for Inspection. Now what that was, was probably anything but proof....


Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

lots of good info...
thanks, ed

Leopold Franz Oppenauer is/was still recently listed as an active gunsmith and gun shop in Ried im Innkreis, Upper Austria.
This is a prewar Ferlach gun retailed by Oppenauer, as suggested by Raimey in a more elaborate manner.
The set trigger indicates the gun also had another set of barrels, likely a shotgun/rifle combination or possibly a DR.

Kind regards,
Jani

very cool...

Here's a similar one from Weipert / Vejprty from 1939, currently for 156€ . Looks like the Germans were in control of the Weipert /Vejprty Proof Facility.


https://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=20112895#img
















Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse