doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com DDR J.P. Sauer and Sons info requested

This afternoon I went to the club and shot some patterns with my Sauer at ten, twenty one, thirty, and forty yards.

Mike Orlen has the right barrel about to a skeet or improved cylinder, and the left barrel to a modified or improved modified.

Judge, for yourselves:











I'm leaving the chokes alone on this gun.

It will do it's part, if I can do mine.

Really nice looking patterns! Should be great in the uplands.
Karl

The patterns do look nice, but Michael McIntosh was right that the best choke for an upland game gun, for the right barrel is no choke, and for the left barrel, no more than 15 thousands.

The left barrel on my beautiful Sauer would turn any well centered quail into a red mist with two wings fluttering down, out to about twenty five or thirty yards, which is where quail are shot over pointing dogs.

I'll use it for doves, or casual clay target shooting.

I have one of these GDR guns in 16 gauge. It is marked as a "Simson", but I guess it really does not make much difference what name is on it. I had the chokes opened to sk1/sk2 and it carries and shoots well. I enjoy it and don't worry too much about pushing through the brush or getting a little rain on it. It also has the Q1 stamp - though I'm not certain how much weight that actually carries as far as quality.

I've never owned a German shotgun other than this J.P. Sauer, but I've owned a whole bunch of old American, Spanish, and Japanese shotguns and this Italian Charles Daly Bernardelli import from 1959.



The build quality of my Superior Export Quality Sauer is second to none of a field grade gun, from A.H. Fox, L.C. Smith, Ithaca, Lefever, Parker, AyA, Browning Miroku, or that Bernardelli made about the same period in Italy. In some ways the East German gun is better, in the bolting and hand fitting of wood to metal. The engraving on the German gun isn't up with some, but it's not bad, just simple and sparse. The checkering on the wood is good, but not something like you'd see on an A.H. Fox or Lefever from the glory days.

The Germans who made the communist era guns didn't quit being Germans, just because they lost the war. They continued making the same excellent quality Anson and Deeley boxlock with a Greener type crossbolt as they had for over forty years before the Russians took over Suhl.

And if they stamped the 1 coming out of a circle on the lug, it had to pass a German quality inspection by some old gray haired master of the craft.

I have a J.P. Sauer with a scalloped box lock, serial #406300. I am told that the serial number places it around 1952. My seller believed it was likely work-in-process before WW II and then sold post-War. I do not know. It is a nice clean gun, but after I started to shoot it, a crack developed behind the scallops. My gunsmith, Abe Chaber in CT, repaired the stock. Abe told me that the quality of the inletting was very bad and that the recoil put metal parts in the lock in contact with the wood, resulting in the split. The metal work and mechanics on the gun are beautiful. It is surprising that the inletting was not what it should have been on an otherwise very nicely made gun. It occurred to me that, if it was work in process pre-War, it is possible that the shoddy stock work was done after the War and not up to pre-War standards. Anybody else have a similar experience with a J.P. Sauer from the immediate post-War era?

My gun has cracks on both sides behind the scallops, but it's been glued and seems sound as a dollar now.

The wood is plain, straight grained European walnut, and it's my guess the Germans weren't able to get well cured and seasoned walnut after the war, like they did before.


It's all cured and seasoned now, and there seems no chance the spits will go any further back.

Mike,
I've seem SKB's with the same scalloped shape behind the receiver that had cracks in the stock as well. My current Merkels have a more rounded shape to them, perhaps a design change to prevent that from happening.
Regarding choking, my Churchill is chocked .003/.011 and I think it's going to preform well this fall based on the pattern sheets I've shot.
Karl

Twelve gauge gun like that with 70mm chambers is very practical choice. Both lead and steel 1oz loads can be found for <$6 at Walmart 24/7 unless one lives near economically-challenged hood there ammo sales stop at 10:00pm. The light steel shot 6 and 7 loads should be ok in barrel choked 1/2 or less. One must remember that in the future ammo delivered to door may not be allowed.
Sadly anything is possible. After 227 years of liberal gun ownership policies (good stuff like CC w/o a permit) it now appears the State of Vermont will have magazine capacity limit, universal background checks, waiting period and minimum age to purchase firearms. All it took was a Democratically-controlled legislature and a Republican governor afraid of student activists.

never mind . . . thought better of it.