What is this shotgun??

[Jackal]

Hi. I recently acquired a 12 guage shotgun built on a Mauser action. I belive it is a Geha, but I have never once seen one that looked like this. It has a very european flair with the Fajen stock and checkered, butterknife style bolt. Front receiver ring has "Germany" stamped in it. There is also an "S" with a crown over it on the barrel. Condition is very good with zero rust and great blueing. Can anyone help me I.D. this very neat old rifle? Also, about what value?

 

[Jim K]

There were two tradenames on guns of that type, GEHA and REMO. The latter stood for Gebruder Rempt Gewehrfabrik (Rempt Bros. Rifle Works); I don't recall at the moment what GEHA stood for.

They were made after WWI when Germany was in desperate need for hard currency and was turning to the one raw material it had plenty of, rifles, for export. Those shotguns were part of that.

One thread that might be of interest is:

http://www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/mauser/index.pl?noframes;read=4685

On one site, I read a statement that the guns were some kind of "sneak" gun, a way to get back to making rifles in contravention of the Versailles treaty. The person who put that out has been reading too many conspiracy books. The work was done, not by the German government or Mauser, but by a couple of small companies made up of gunsmiths who wanted to continue eating regularly in the economic disaster area that was 1920's Germany. There was no "Nazi conspiracy" involved and no need to "sneak" back into rifle production; Mauser's tooling was intact, it only needed started up.

FWIW, the crowned S is the standard German commercial proof for a smooth bore barrel.

Jim