doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Interesting auto safety

In the tiny southern Minnesota town of Spicer, there are three buildings along State Highway 23, almost side by side, that have signs with the word "Guns" on it. One is a Gift and Gun shop, one is Mel's sporting goods, convenience, and booze, and the third is Laib's Gunsmithing. I had to swing in and check out the first and last on the way out to hunt the end of the Minnesota pheasant season. Gifts and Guns was, unsurprisingly, not interesting. Laib's sign said "Used Guns for Sale". I liked the sound of that. But all he had that was close to interesting on the front racks were 2 LCs and one Parker. But when he found I was interested in more European things, the pulled out a personal gun, not for sale.

He said it was Merkel. I could not find a makers name on it, although it had some Merkel features, but different. The cocking indicators were rotating slotted screws, the Greener crossbolt was square, and the scalloping at the back of the action was different somehow. It was definitely germanic from the deeply carved engraving, but very narrow for a 12, as if it had trigger bar locks. The receiver was almost a round-body.

Anyway, what he really liked about it was a strange feature I had never seen. It was fitted for a sling, but in this case the rear sling mount had a spring-loaded mechanism attached to the loop for the strap. I expected to pull out a full sling, but it stopped after about a centimeter. It turns out that the short movement activated a secondary automatic safety mechanism resets the safety if you should forget to do so before reslinging the gun on your shoulder.

I do not think it is a particularly advantageous feature, but it was the first I had ever seen or heard of. The gunsmith was very enamored of it, and said he had never seen another. Is this common among the often slung continental Euro guns?

I will stop at Laib's again next year. Maybe something else will be worth a look. It was also interesting that he had two younger guys back behind the counters that were doing actual gunsmithing, as was he, when I walked in. Guns were in pieces and being filed and fiddled with. A sign listed a bunch of real gunsmithing services, including stock making. I have not come across too many real gunsmith shops while crisscrossing the country frequently.