Drew,
You are an angel! I have just been into my cabinet and pored over the proof marks of my Habicht 12 bore non-ejector shotgun. This was given to me by my father, recently retired from the USAF / USAAF in June 1965. He bought it at the Rod and Gun club at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, Great Britain for $55, tax free or £20 Sterling at that time.
It is a very ordinary gun which I now realise is not German, or even Austrian, but made for Habicht in Spain. The date code (which I had never spotted) is J1, so dating it to 1964. I have yet to find a maker's mark. It has now fired about 600 cartridges.
It was designed for the Germanic market and so has sling swivels and a cheek piece, with a pistol grip stock that has Zero cast, which might explain why I could not hit much, and so concentrated on pistol shooting until 1996. It lived under my bed in its cardboard box in various student digs for many years, and kept my interested in shooting alive despite cars and girlfriends.
Thanks for the memories!
HB
| 