Contact the seller…if his name is Chuck…I bet you are good to go. You can ask if his name is Chuck and does he know Will. Or if you decided you were really interested in the rifle, I can give you Chuck’s phone number. He has a 416 Merkel that he is helping a longtime friend sell, that looks like the gun, and Chuck lives in Wasilla. A friend of mine and fellow forum member was going to buy it and they had a deal worked out, but Chuck was told it was an ejector gun, something on my buds mandatory list, but when the rifle made it to Chuck and he looked it over in hand, he let us know it had extractors. So the deal was undone. The starting bid is south of their deal too.
I was sad since Chuck was going to drive it down here to Soldotna so I run test it out and try a few Rigby loads through it before mailing it south. AND….Chuck was going to bring his vintage 577 down with so I could try it out. We were going to have a play day of sorts, he wanted to shoot my Heym and Westley Richards 450/400’s.
I have to believe this is the same rifle. And Chuck is a hellova nice guy, longtime member of Wild Sheep up here in Alaska and now more medically semi-retired I believe. We met and had a long conversation at the Wilds Sheep banquet as we were both dumping tickets into the Heym Martini 404J raffle. Splendid conversation with him and his daughter and then into doubles, and so on. We’ve corresponded regularly since. We don’t have just dozens and dozens of double fanatics here in the state, so when you meet one, you take note. Most seem to know each other.
Anyway, cheers and good luck with your search. While you may decide a Merkel isn’t want you are looking for, I wouldn’t just skip this rifle because it looks scammy….we can help you sort that part.
