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NIEDNER RIFLE CORP pistol ??
MIKE WISKEY
Member, Moderator Posts: 9,974 ******
looking for any info on this rolling block pistol I picked up at a local gun shop. The barrel is marked "Niedner Rifle Corp., Dowagiac, Mi." and the scope is marked "Germnay Zielklein No. 27651". Cal. is .22 hornet and overall condition is exc. thanks
Comments
It looks like a Remington Rolling block pistol, 1901 target model, that the famous Neidner shop converted to .22 Hornet and mounted the scope on.
Looks like a fabulous score. Made between 1920-1940, high quality gunsmith.
As stated, Niedner was a custom gunsmith in Southwestern , Michigan. He specialized in high velocity .22 caliber rifle development among other custom work in the 1930 to 40's. That is a very unique piece. I would say it was built for woodchuck shooting out to 150 yards. Woodchuck shooting was the big thing then on the farm lands. The deer were all killed off. Now the woodchucks are gone and deer hunting is the big event on the farms.
Looks like Mal's gun from "Firefly" with a scope.
It takes some digging to find much about these pistols as total production of the Remington 1901 was only 735 between 1901-1909. Niedner couldn't have converted very many. Assuming that he made the barrel, he may have stamped a number somewhere on it which might pinpoint the year it was done. Accuracy was all-important with him and he preferred using quality German optics. You can access an online discussion from 2009 with Michael Petrov who was a Niedner historian, where barrel date codes are noted. Google "A.O. Niedner the doublegun". (Petrov passed away in 2014). The line of Zeiss scopes including Zielklein (target small) can be seen on fleabay by searching "1934 print ad Carl Zeiss Jena", a page from Stoeger's catalog, currently listed for sale. Some folks might consider your gun a museum piece.
thanks so much for the link. my barrel is marked 1272 cb making it a 1935 build. I did have a chance to shoot it from a 'make shift' rest and it shoots very well.
If you read the link you know that cb is the initials of the rifling tech, Carlyn Behrman. BTW, $31 for a scope in the middle of the Depression was a pretty good chunk of cash.
I took the grip off and the frame & trigger guard are numbered 1985 with an additional # hand stamped of 1174. neither piece of wood have any markings.
edit; I've done a bit of work with Rem. rolling blocks and the #'s on the frame & trigger guard are the ser. # of the action. they MAY not have started with #1.
Numbers covered by grips may have been I.D. numbers within a lot to facilitate re-joining already-fitted components separated for finish or other work. May or may not not be serial numbers.