I'm currently sitting on 3 single shot rifles. One is my Stevens 15-A, which is a 1950's classic that was the first rifle of many shooters. They are really fantastic rifles. Solid as the day is long and even more accurate. They take shorts, longs and LR's. Mine has no doubt taken more squirrels than any rifle I own. My brother used it as his primary hunting rifle for about 12 years and that was in his heaviest hunting period. He's killed hundreds of squirrels with it.
Second I have a Savage 12 LRPV in .223. This is one of the best production rifles on the market as far as accuracy goes IMO. Savage wins consistently in the F/TR and F Class competitions with their target rifles which are very, very similar to what I have. 2" groups at 500 yards are common with this rifle.
The last one isn't mine. It belongs to my landlord (dang I gotta get back to my house) that I have because my wife had to move to keep her job. The rifle is a Emil Kerner u. Sohn .22 Hornet rifle that looks like a cross between a stalking rifle and a German Schuetzen rifle. It has features from both and Kerner and clan were known to make both. It has the octagon barrel, double set triggers, iron sights, finger rest breakdown lever and the thin palm rest stock that characterize German Schuetzen rifles. But it has a butt stock that says stalking rifle. Both have the great cheek rest of course but the German Schuetzen rifles have the arm rest instead of a shoulder rest (it bends around the arm in a "C" formation and is meant to be shot with the butt against the arm instead of the shoulder. This rifle has a 2 oz. trigger on it. The trigger is common on a lot of German Schuetzen and stalking rifles. And yes this is a Suhl rifle.
I've posted photos of the Stevens before and maybe the Savage. But the Kerner hasn't been shown online yet. I'm doing research on this rifle for my landlord because he's interested in selling it and I will get a commission for selling it at the correct price. He was offered a ridiculously insulting price at a local gun shop and I told him the place to sell was on the net. I live in the Cincinnati area which has a rich German heritage and German Schuetzen competitions were very common before WWI. The war brought about a lot of anti-German sentiment so that ended a lot of the competitions. Nothing about this rifle would knock it out of shooting in Schuetzen competitions, which BTW is the oldest form of rifle competition still in existence. It dates back to the 14th century. Yes the 14th century.
Some of the really old rifles (the competitions really got going among the public in the 1840 era - before that it was a military competition) with the ornate steel engravings are known to sell in the $50,000 range or even higher. But the one I have is nothing like that of course. It is a valuable rifle though. That's half the reason he left it with me while he spent the winter in Florida. I've been keeping it in my safe along with a couple of other rifles. Even the lower level rifles of this type are sold in the $3000-$5000 range. The gun shop offered him $300 for it thinking he wouldn't know what he had. And he didn't either but he knew it was more valuable than that. I showed him some info and that's why he wants me to sell it.
I'll be posting photos of this baby very soon. I'm just looking for info right now so I'll know what it's really worth. I don't want to take advantage of anyone including the owner of the rifle. The only real problem with the rifle, and it is very minor, is that there is some pitting in the bore because of having shot a good bit of black powder rounds through it. It is a fairly old gun but it can't be extremely old and shoot .22 Hornet ammo. I think that's only about 80 years old. Still this is one heck of a nice rifle. It's so weird to have a heavy, octagon barrel and a palm rest that looks like it belongs on a golf club. And the adjust able trigger is set so low that you can almost set it off by blowing on it. The Schuetzen competitions were done off hand, again, so it was a real challenge to create a gun that could win those popular contests. That's what made Suhl rifles famous. I don't know if you're aware but Suhl's are considered to be on the same level as Anschutz rifles.
It's an interesting rifle to say the least. I just can't figure why it has some German Schuetzen features and some stalking rifle features. I'll be looking for help on that subject soon. That will be when I post the photos which I hope to take very soon.
