I've found my Miltary trainer, a Haenel 33 Schmeisser patent repeater

[ptdunk]

I've been on the lookout for a nice example of a Miliary trainer since shooting my mates Haenel 49a a few months ago and really enjoying it.
Wanted something with a full Mauser style wood stock but couldn't workout which one would tick all the boxes.

Again Protek have come up trumps with a very nice Haenel 33 (adult full-size version) which has obviously had a lot of use but has been really well looked after (probably by lots of well disciplined if misguided little Germans)


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I replaced the little spring behind the trigger that pushes the sear up and filed out the correct notch on the magazine to fit these older pre-war Haenel bolt actions.
It shoots really nicely putting out a respectable 370fps with 7.4gr copper coated lead balls, and it is quite accurate at 10 yards and very accurate at 6.
The trigger is a nice light two stage jobbie.

Vic at Protek sent me some good pictures prior to purchase, and it arrived with a little sketch he'd done with dimensions he'd taken from his own original pre-war 33 magazine, this made converting the later 12 shot mag very easy. Buying it from their 'upcoming sales' section on their website meant I got it for a good price and did a little bit of work on it myself but it was very easy.

It's a pretty good representation of a K98, which is not surprising given Haenel's military weapons background. Nice to see 'Schmeisser's patent' stamped on the cylinder, same as the Junior. The barrel band castings are particularly nice details, as is the little dummy cleaning rod.

John M did some very interesting articles on the 33 Junior, finding evidence the H.J used it, I wonder who used the adult sized ones?

Not much online about these, generally mentioned alongside the 33 Junior, but I believe they might not be that common? Serial number is 11100 which is a bit lower than most I've found online but I don't know how this relates to date.

It's great fun to shoot, and possibly had the most 'interesting' life of any of my air rifles.

Cheers,
Matt