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Thread: Tell 3 pistol enigma

  1. #16
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    Wink Now,if

    you can find a .177 inner barrel sleeve-marked by "The Inner Barrel Co.Granite City Ill." you can arrange to have a really rare old Tell3!
    https://imgur.com/a/Duyb0hD
    Last edited by cinedux; 15-01-2021 at 07:53 PM.

  2. #17
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    Should be easy to sleeve in .177. Smoothbore or rifled. Plenty of smoothbore .177 tube around with small O.D.

    Baz
    BE AN INDEPENDENT THINKER, DON'T FOLLOW THE CROWD

  3. #18
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    Another Example

    When scrolling through my photos of the Tell 3 pistol I did find another example of 6 1/3 caliber. Appears that it is the same font used on the Stroud Auction piece. Here is the link from the 15-May-2020 auction. Unfortunately no serial number was provided.

    https://auctionet.com/en/1329374-air...ade-in-germany

  4. #19
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    looks genuine

    live and learn

  5. #20
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    Looks to be the same pistol but refinished since sold at the same auction earlier in 2020.

  6. #21
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    Quite interesting - the Stroud 6-1/3 does look to be the same gun shown by Buck25: check the ding in left side of front sight, position of pivot and lock-screw slots, apparent repaint on left grip emblem. Someone got a bargain in Sweden, now cashing in!

    To me the caliber stamp looks real, though typical marking is:
    Kal. 4 1/2 mm
    cal. .177
    So why would they get lazy on the odd gun(s) - possibly a factory worker's personal dart-shooter?

    Don R.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by draitzer View Post

    So why would they get lazy on the odd gun(s) - possibly a factory worker's personal dart-shooter?

    Don R.
    Or a wartime attempt to use it when the common sizes were in short supply. anything would have been of use when cats and rats were the only meat available (Overworked draught horses excepted)

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by WebleyWombler View Post
    Or a wartime attempt to use it when the common sizes were in short supply. anything would have been of use when cats and rats were the only meat available (Overworked draught horses excepted)
    That would be a plausible possibility if it was a single one-off large calibre pistol. But two at once?
    Vintage Airguns Gallery
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  9. #24
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    Danny, as noted in my reply #21 above, check the pictured details for the Stroud and Swedish auction guns and see if you think they're not the same item:

    "Quite interesting - the Stroud 6-1/3 does look to be the same gun shown by Buck25: check the ding in left side of front sight, position of pivot and lock-screw slots, apparent repaint on left grip emblem. Someone got a bargain in Sweden, now cashing in!"

    As to the other Stroud 6 mm gun, the stamping looks questionable to me but it's JMO.

    Don R.

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by draitzer View Post
    Danny, as noted in my reply #21 above, check the pictured details for the Stroud and Swedish auction guns and see if you think they're not the same item:

    Don R.
    I'm sure you're right about this Don.
    Vintage Airguns Gallery
    ..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
    In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Garvin View Post
    I'm sure you're right about this Don.
    So maybe it's only the 6mm pistol that's recent? Otherwise the chances of finding both large calibre pistols seem extremely remote.
    Vintage Airguns Gallery
    ..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
    In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.

  12. #27
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    Take a closer look at the barrel markings on the bright steel one. It’s clearly hand engraved with one of those vibrating engraver tools. Awful job. Both were on gunstar recently. Claiming one to be nickel plated. Looks like bare steel to me. The other I doubt was originally 6 1/3. You have to wonder if they have been drilled out.... but why?

  13. #28
    ccdjg is offline Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    I have been doing a bit more digging into these pistols, asking other collectors for their opinions and looking more closely at the images. The first thing I can say is that there has been universal agreement that the pistol marked with 6⅓ mm is the same as the one pictured on the Swedish auction site, and has since been cleaned up and reblued.
    Secondly, close inspection of one of the gun’s pictures on the Swedish site revealed partial lettering under the barrel which spell the word IMPORT. I have contacted Stroud Auctions, asking if there is any such lettering under the barrel of their gun, but I have not been able to get any response from them.






    So this is my take on the 6⅓ mm pistol. This gun would most probably have started off as a war-years export from Germany to Sweden, as it is known that many were exported there up to 1944. I have copies of early 1940’s Swedish catalogues advertising them, but in .177 calibre only. The word IMPORT has the same meaning in Swedish as in English, and would serve the same role as the word FOREIGN found on many of our imports.
    The calibre, expressed in the form “6⅓ “, is peculiarly German and is found in many vintage German catalogues, but I have never come across it in Swedish catalogues. It seems most likely therefore that the gun barrel was made and stamped in Germany, by Venuswaffenwerk, and the stamping has obviously been made with a purpose-made die. A Swedish company is unlikely to have any need to drill out a .177 barrel to such an odd calibre, and is also unlikely to have had access to such a specialist die. I can only assume that in the war years, Venuswaffenwerk were making do with whatever materials they could get for airgun production, which had to take second place to main weapons production, and was only tolerated to earn a bit of much needed foreign currency for the Reich. The 6⅓ mm calibre barrelling used on this Tell 3 pistol was just a result of expediency, making use of what happened to be available at a very difficult time. The pistol, perhaps part of a small batch, was shipped off to Sweden and then we know the rest of the story. I did ask the Stroud auctioneers if the barrels of their two pistols were rifled or smoothbore, but again, no response.

    As far as the 6mm pistol is concerned I haven’t formed any conclusions, but Jimmie’s comments are interesting and food for thought.

  14. #29
    micky2 is online now The collector formerly known as micky
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    Quote Originally Posted by JimmieDee View Post
    Take a closer look at the barrel markings on the bright steel one. It’s clearly hand engraved with one of those vibrating engraver tools. Awful job. Both were on gunstar recently. Claiming one to be nickel plated. Looks like bare steel to me. The other I doubt was originally 6 1/3. You have to wonder if they have been drilled out.... but why?
    To make them seem more rare, to get a better price.

  15. #30
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    My gut feeling is that the 6/13 IMPORT one is genuine. I've no evidence to support that. It's just a gut feeling.

    The bright steel one though I have my doubts. Perhaps it was so badly corroded that not only was it polished externally but also the barrel may have been drilled out to 6mm and finally hand engraved with an electro-mechanical engraving tool. It's definitely not stamped.

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