Hafner Double, Potentially Interesting?

Aaron N

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Happy Saturday Gentlemen!

In my usual morning peruse of classifieds, I came across this German hammer double in 9.3x72R. A rifle like this doesn’t pop up very often north of the 49th, and I’m curious as to what the keen eyes here can discern.
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Side note, I did not realize this cartridge was so anemic until I looked into it.
 
X72 R was nicknamed " Förster Patrone", 193 grain bullet loaded, the 9,3 is good on smaller to medium game. S&B loads ammo ,and data is several places, RWS Wiederladen Blue Bible have data for it.

The scopemount is interesting ,not one ive seen before.
 
The 9.3x72R was a bit like a 30-30 in capability and intent. A double rifle like this would have been used for wild boar, red stag, and roe deer in Europe. A driven boar hunt would have been a perfect venue. As you can clearly see, this one was set up for an offset claw mounted scope. It is a rare design that was intended to keep a low rib free of obstruction for use of the open sights. The rings were probably designed to center the scope back over the rib, and would be tricky for a craftsman to replicate today.

This was a high quality rifle in is day. Somewhere on the barrel flats or action is probably a three-number code which tells the month and year of manufacture - in this case, probably sometime around WWI. I can't see a "nitro" mark on the barrels, but they look like fluid steel in the photos.

A rifle like this could be a very special thing or a money pit. Because the scope and those rings are missing, it was likely a "liberated" bit of loot by a Canadian serviceman. German hunters normally kept scopes in a separate leather case, and they almost always were overlooked by rummaging soldiers or widows turning in firearms to occupation forces immediately following the war.

The most critical component are the barrels. The rifling needs to be perfect and the solder needs to be solid. When dismounted, they should ring like a church bell. The rifle should be perfectly on face. Upon removal of the forend, the rifle should be tight with no perceived movement. This one has an adjustable set trigger for the right barrel. Someone - a very competent someone - needs to insure that trigger mechanism is functioning properly.

A very positive sign are the still indexed screws with no indication of an incompetent gunsmith or owner buggering them with the wrong tool.

If everything checks out, 7K is about right for this rifle. It would be fine for Canadian whitetail at close range, but a bit on the light side for moose. It would be great for wild boar.

As noted above, ammunition is loaded for the caliber, though whether it would regulate in this particular rifle would be a crap shoot. If you reload, you could probably work up a workable load that would be minute of boar.

Finding someone who could build offset rings for such mounts would be a huge and expensive challenge. I am not sure even JJ Perodeau would attempt to recreate them.
 

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