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Thread: A couple of rare air pistols from Germany, during covid and pre-Brexit

  1. #1
    ccdjg is offline Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    A couple of rare air pistols from Germany, during covid and pre-Brexit

    This past year has been a peculiar one for collecting, but I have managed to add a couple of rare German items to my pistol collection via eGun. I guess if we don’t get a good Brexit deal from the EU, this source will dry up, as there will be so many new hoops for German sellers to go through.

    The first pistol I landed will not excite many collectors, as it is a ‘pop-out’ , or ‘push-barrel’ pistol, but for me it marked the end of a long search to fill a gap in my collection. In a previous thread (nearly three years ago): http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....hlight=Schmidt ) I showed a wood grip Schmidt HS pistol that I had picked up from eGun. This was the earliest pistol in an evolving sequence of three push-barrels that Hermann Schmidt produced between about 1950 and 1995. I already had the common last model, the HS9A, so that left the rare intermediate model, the HS9 to find.

    This shows the HS pistol sequence:




    This is the HS9 that I managed to find off eGun earlier this year.:




    It is actually quite a nice little, solid pistol as far as pop-outs go, and although it is mechanically identical to its wood grip HS predecessor, its one-piece plastic grip frame extends more forward than in the HS, and it also includes a plastic trigger guard. Like the wood grip, the blued steel cylinder unit is fixed to the grip frame by a bolt through the heel of the grip, and dismantling is straightforward.

    (The final HS9A version is a much inferior product, with the grip frame and cylinder as a single welded plastic unit. The piston actually slides over plastic! I can’t find any way of getting it apart without destroying the plastic frame, so it must have sold as almost a throwaway item. I only give it house room because it completes the group.)


    The second pistol I was lucky enough to get was a boxed, nickelled Tell 2. (The box actually came with a different vintage pellet tin, which I was able to replace thanks to Danny).






    I have to thank both Danny and Matt (ptdunk) for their great help in acquiring this pistol, which reinforces my long-held opinion that there are a lot of real gentlemen on this forum. I particularly have to thank Danny for the incredibly generous gift of the Tell pellet tin, which certainly helped to make the set complete.

    I suppose that technically this pistol should be called the Tell 2a, as this is how it was how the nickelled, black plastic gripped version was referred to in catalogues at the time.



    The box and pistol are in excellent condition considering their age, and the nickel plating is perfect except for a small loss at the muzzle. The seller advertised the gun as having a non-working trigger and would not cock. However, when I took the gun apart I could see that there was nothing wrong with the action, and the failure to cock was due simply to the trigger guard/cocking lever having bent outwards to an almost imperceptible degree. This is a common problem with the closely related Acvoke pistol, but I had never come across it before with the Tell 2. Anyway, careful pressure on the trigger guard in a vise solved the problem with no damage to the nickel plating.

    The pistol has the usual Venuswaffenwerk marklngs on the cylinder, and there are no markings on the cocking lever. This is consistent with the theory that the cocking lever letters frequently found on Tell 2’s in this country are British retailers markings. This particular example would never have been intended for the UK market. See http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ll-2-Stampings

    Although I already have two Tell 2 pistols, they are the more usually encountered blued versions with chequered wooden grips, and neither are boxed. I have long searched for a nickelled version, and also wanted a boxed example to replace the one I reluctantly traded away about 15 years ago to a Swedish collector. So this example was ideal as it killed two birds with one stone.

    I am only too glad that these two eGun opportunities arose before the (possible) no-deal Brexit kicks in.

  2. #2
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    A rare brace!

    Nicely scored old son. I've not seen either previously. Here,in cautious NZ,I'm reduced to putting a bid on a rather rough BRITON pop-out-just to get the horrible Bulldog!Trev

  3. #3
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    That Tell 2 is a treat!

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  5. #5
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    I have to confess pop-out barrel pistols do not appeal to me. However the tell 2 is a lovely looking pistol and your new example is really nice.
    Rich.
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  6. #6
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    Excellent acquisitions... that Tell 2 really is a cracker.

    Now they’re where they belong

    Cheers,
    Matt

  7. #7
    micky2 is offline The collector formerly known as micky
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    What a lovely little pistol in that nickel finish, and that box is cracking too.

  8. #8
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    It was a pleasure to be able to help complete the set, John.
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  9. #9
    career707lover is offline His one man drag act at the dog and duck sells out every friday
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    Lovely little pistols there mate and congratulations on completing the collection. Just out of interest have you ever had an Acvoke? Always like them.

  10. #10
    ccdjg is offline Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    Yes, the Tell 2 is a great little pistol, not only because it packs a surprising bit of power in such a small space but because it also inspired the later Acvoke and its smaller counterpart the Thunderbolt Junior. I have had a number of Acvokes over the years now and wouldn't be without one.

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