newbie here needing some help to idenitfy mystery rifle

[sidman]

Has anyone heard of a HOHENZOLLERN air rifle? mystery solved it was made by Wagria in germany dating still to come

[mav72]

Nice! Interesting looking rifle... So how do you correctly pronounce that? I still haven't figured out how to correctly pronounce Weihrauch... LOL

[RedFeather]

That is one strange looking beast.  I assume it is clip fed?  Looks like a clip from a Haenel round ball gun, too.  More info, please!

[RedFeather]

How about posting more info?  I see you have quite a thread on the German gate.

[sidman]

This gun was brought back from Germany in the early 50s by my wife's grandfather and has been in a closet for about the last 60 years or so. We just had it out because we were looking at a few of our other old guns, like Crossman and that, and started trying to find out a little bit about it. The more we started to look the more curious we got because we could not find any information, especially with the collectors. They were just as puzzled as we were.

Yes, this was a mystery gun, to us and everyone else for a long time. We've been in touch with several collectors and no one seemed to have ever heard of the name. The name on the gun is Hohenzollern, and every time when we'd get online looking it always came up with a castle and royal family instead of a gun. So everything was becoming so mysterious, and thanks to your forum and the air gates you have to the different countries, especially Germany, I was able to get with them and Robert over there, he got in touch with his friends and they all started doing history and researching it.

Since we've been doing research with all the reading and that, I've become more interested in vintage air guns, and I think I'm going to stick with trying to collect and restore some because it seems to be so interesting. We're still working on getting more details about this gun, mainly the year, but according to Robert and his friends the clip does pre-date 1945, so it may be a pre-war gun also. I don't know for sure. I think F. W. Vandrey & Co in Hamburg Germany was who made it because they produced Wagria and Hohenzollern.

The clip is a 12 round clip made by Haenel DRP. It is a 4.4 mm not the standard 4.5 .177 caliber, so ammo is a little bit harder to find. I've been checking around and haven't had much luck yet. But, the gun itself is in good condition. Everything functions as it should. I just need to clean it up good and oil it down.

We're looking forward to hearing more ourselves especially since we're still trying to get the date knocked down to within a year or two. As of right now, that's about all we know, except that it has raised a lot of attention both in Germany and here. I will post any updates as I hear also. This is a really fantastic site, and I'm really glad that I ran across it. The guys on here have been so great. Thanks so much to all! If any questions or comments feel free to ask, and I'll try to do what I can. Thanks, Don

[Petey]

http://www.network54.com/Forum/405945/thread/1138216508/1138308149/OK

[airnutz]

Don, the best that can be found about the date is mid 50's.  So Granddad brought over a new rifle back in the day.

The clip was before 1945 from the Haenel 33.  The guys are still arguing here about the mysterious 2/10 of a millimeter needed to make the clip fit.  One guys says it needed to be trimmed, the other says his didn't.  But this is just normal for Germans when it comes to technical things.  Get three of them together, and you get four opinions on why and what for.  Often though, they are all right, because the Metal was fubar.   

Wagria is pronounced "vog'-ree-ah" in your language.

Weihrauch is by the way "vie'-rouk", like "die" with an "ouch", but with a k on the end instead on ch.

[sidman]

Hi Pete thanks for the link very interesting, especially the pictures.

And, Robert, thanks for coming through again with the date.

Ok, from 0 to 10 what would you say rarity would be for this Hohenzollern? It's definitely been quite the quest, but thanks to you fine guys, we've had a lot of our questions answered. Thanks, Don

[airnutz]

Don, I would think it is definitely a rarity in the US and in Germany as well as not many folks have many of these or know much about them. Even Haenels for that matter in your area.

The Haenels (hay'-nul, like anal   ) are good guns, just the wood is cheap and tacky looking.

Look at the old $)((# I showed you on the auction here, with all of the funky studs nailed in the thing, it went for $200.

There are just not many around, and yours looks pretty darned good to me.

[mav72]

airnutz: Thanks for the phonetics... I wouldn't have known how to pronounce the words correctly...

Yea, that gun looks to be in pretty good condition for it's age..

[airnutz]

Hello mav, my pleasure.

OK class, let's have now the word for....brassiere. 

Teacher; "Ahem, mav what are you doing there?
mav; "Oh I'm just looking".
Don; "I think he has it".
Robert; "mav, she's good looking".
mav; "I have it!  Bra is....stoppen-zee-floppen".

 

[lizzie]

Wow- VERY cool old gun. Congrats!

[badredbird]

very nice , very unique , and german made doesnt hurt either