What is an H and H Zehner Custom mauser?

Answer 1

H&H Zehner was a a postwar Frankfort gunsmith firm, engraver, and custom rifle builder apparently beginning in the early stages of the occupation and continuing at least as a gun-dealer/shop in Frankfurt until at least the fairly recent past. Here are some few facts and my opinion based on what I have seen. It would be wonderful is someone familiar with the shop as it existed in Frankfurt could correct any errors of mine and add details.

As a name, "Zehner" may be the family name of a guild maker or a reference to to a "10" score for a target hit. Evidently, H&H Zehner was also associated with a target range in the Frankfurt area.

I think because a lot of work was done to order for American GI's, quite a few examples appear in the American market. Immediately post-war, it appears that bolt action rifles were built on GI-provided "liberated" Mauser military actions and M1903 Springfields bought cheaply as surplus by officers. I have seen later bolt-action rifles that are built on FN or Sako commercial Mauser actions. All in all I have seen about a dozen Zehner rifles and own one.

A "top quality" rifle from Zehner is heavily and skillfully engraved with an oak-leaf pattern on the receiver, a stereotypical elk-like stag on the floor plate, and with the owner's initials ornately rendered over the trigger and is marked in some variation of "H&H Zehner Gunsmiths Frankfort" as part of the floorplate engraving. I have seen plainer, less ornate examples that seem to date from the later 1959s or 1969s (when skilled hand-work was starting to get expensive). I have seen close to identical engraving and stock carving patterns on several different Zehner rifles. Thus, I suspect in most cases a Zehner customer selected "embellishments" from a choice of several "standardized" patterns rather than getting truly bespoke work.

Stocks vary substantially but usually include carved animal scenes in keeping with engraving stereotypes and filligree in addition to checkering. Many of the pre-1950 examples include a top quality pre-war commercial Hensolt or other Wetzlar scope. I suspect these were "used" scopes kept by their German owners when they were forced to turn in their private fire arms for destruction by allies early in the occupation.

I do not know if early Zehner rifles can properly be lumped in to the category of "Cigarette Rifles." If this is the case, then Zehner was certainly one of the more skilled.

Some Zehner examples are over-the-top cookoo clock like in ornateness and awkward in the hand. Maybe these were "apprentice work." Others are are beautifully balanced, and styled in the lean tradition of a high-grade English magazine rifle or a pre-war custom Springfield from Griffin and Howe. This has caused me to wonder if the "H&H" is perhaps an intentional allusion to "Holland and Holland." On these examples, the Zehner-typical engaving and stock carving seems elegant and tasteful rather than a bit garish.

I suspect this (clunky vs. graceful examples) has to do a lot with the sophistication of the person that originally ordered the rifle. Those who knew enough to appreciate a Griffin and Howe or Rigby-like rifle and clearly describe its attributes, got that.

My example is on a wonderfully smithed and polished M1903 Springfield action, has 100% hand engraving coverage, and engine turned bolt, probably dates to between 1945 and 1948 and includes a scope that dates to the late 1930's with claw mounts engraved as the receiver. A game scene is carved in shallow relief on the stock which from 10 feet you would swear was Griffin and Howe. The rifle is light (just under 7 lbs without scope) and balances superbly with weight between the hands. The action is velvet smooth and the trigger is as good as it gets. The rifle is superbly accurate.