Johann Fanzoj

In the Land of the Blind, The One-Eyed Man Is King

Henry .45 Long Colt

Sometimes you have everything you need in fighting a war. Overwhelming troop strength; some kind of technological advantage; holding the high ground and a whole bunch of other factors make it a lot easier to defeat your opponent. But sometimes, you just have to be a little bit better and you can win. In regione caecorum rex est luscus is an old Latin saying that I’ve adopted for looking at things in a different way, but since I don’t speak Latin, “In the Land of the Blind, The One-Eyed Man Is King” will have to do.

For example, let’s just say that the politicians decide that semi-automatic pistols, semi-automatic rifles, and semi-automatic shotguns should be prohibited from civilian ownership. If those types of weapons go away and that’s all you had before the laws took effect, you are now living blind in the self-defense world.

But even though, in our scenario, you do not have a semi-auto anymore, if you have revolvers as handguns, lever-actions as a carbine/rifle, and a pump or double barrel shotgun, you may have a reduced capability (figuratively one eye instead of two), but you can defend yourself really well, if you are proficient in these older-style weapons. And you aren’t limited to just one.

In fact, you will have significant advantages with these “less capable” weapons, but first let’s dispel a few myths. There aren’t any zombies. The odds of you having to defend your home against hundreds of firearm-equipped attackers are staggeringly low. Two, almost any individual attacker will not go kamikaze on you after running through multiple hits to his body. Pain deters; if it doesn’t, then just decline Novocain next time at the dentist. And meth-heads have diminished combat capacity when they put that junk in their bodies.

Let’s take revolvers. Most hold six rounds; a few snubbies hold only five; and newer models over the last fifteen years can hold up to seven or even eight (an S&W Model 617 holds ten .22LR.) If you can’t hit center of mass on a guy’s chest with one of 6-7-8 rounds you haven’t practiced enough. Its important you hit because reloading a double-action revolver – except for Jerry Miculek – is painfully slow. And reloading a single-action revolver is lethally slow. And revolvers generally have more “felt” recoil because they don’t have a slide eating up part of that.

That’s the sour news; now the good. You can conceal small revolvers. You have more caliber choices in revolvers than you do in semis. .357 Magnum comes to mind, and yes there is a Desert Eagle but those are really expensive and almost nobody has one and after a ban on semis, you won’t either. But you can easily have a .357 revolver, which also will shoot .38s and .38 Plus, which means you have a greater chance to find ammo in an ammo-shortage era. Ruger, Colt, Smith and Wesson and others make some pretty good models that I would stake my life on.

That’s because in a self-defense fight, you can’t afford any technical problems. Most encounters will not be under optimum conditions (read low-level light, cold temperature – so you are wearing bulky gloves – initial surprise disadvantage, etc.) The last thing you want is a failure to extract, failure to feed, or failure to fire – all three of which can happen in a semi-auto. A failure to fire (firing pin hits the primer in the rear of the case but the powder fails to detonate) can happen in a revolver, but if that rare event happens (especially in factory ammo; I would never trust my life to ammo I had reloaded), you just pull the trigger again. No need to re-rack it. There are a few guys online that assert revolvers are less reliable. Go ahead and believe that if you want. But in this scenario that you can’t have a semi-auto, you basically can have a revolver, or nothing, so make your choice. In regione caecorum rex est luscus.

Oops; I forgot. There are Bond Arms derringers that are obviously not revolvers; I have fired Bonds in .410, .45LC, 9mm, and .38/.357 and all were really well-made and fill a small niche in anyone’s arsenal. A very small niche that might be counter-car-jacking or something like that, because they have just a two-round capacity and are also slow to reload. But since you can buy replacement barrels that all work on the same frame, they may be the most flexible firearm to have during ammo shortages because of that. In fact, Bond now even has a derringer called the Cyclops — and it fires a .45-70 !!!!! The Cyclops features a 4.25″ stainless steel barrel that is bored out as a single-shot to add weight and comfort and also sports their new, proprietary B6 grips which fill the hand properly and lend to a pleasant shooting experience. I guess we’ll have to define “pleasant”!!!

Now to carbines/rifles. So if we can’t have a semi-auto, might want to consider a lever-action. They come in a lot of calibers but seem limited in 9mm and .45ACP. Why am I singling those two out? Well, if you have your rifle in the same caliber as your revolver it makes it logistically easier on you. Henry weapons generally hold about ten rounds give or take. They used to be a pain in the rear to reload in the tubular magazine but maybe the gals and guys at Henry anticipated this situation and now many models also have side loading gates. Also, when you have a 16 to 20-inch barrel, rounds like .357 and .44 pick up a whole lot more velocity and become even more lethal. If you don’t care for a Henry, Marlin or Winchester are great also.

And most of the optics you can put on a semi will work on a lever-action, especially newer ones that have Picatinny rails on them. For shotguns, you go through the same logical process; heck, treat yourself and have a pump, an over-under and a double barrel side by side. Or a really cool German or Austrian combination weapon that might be an over-under shotgun/rifle like something from Ludwig Borovnik or Johann Fanzoj. You’ll need to get one used, and you’ll need to be REALLY nice to your better half, and when you see the prices you’ll know why!

With weapons getting scarcer in stores try GunBroker.com, GunsAmerica.com, or Gunsinternational.com so at least you can see price ranges and determine what’s reasonable.

In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to have this discussion. But we don’t live in an ideal world; in fact, we never did, because life isn’t that way. So make the best of it and be that one-eyed shooter when a lot of folks are going to be “blind” because they haven’t prepared.

In the Land of the Blind, The One-Eyed Man Is KingFrench MacLean2023-10-08T15:04:30-05:00

Freedom Arms Model 97 .45 Colt

Freedom Arms Model 97 in .45 Colt

“If we couldn’t build a better gun than the rest of the industry, we wouldn’t stay in it.”

When you get to be my age, you appreciate quality. My wife of 37 years has attained absolute perfection, for example. My close friends all deserve to be best friends and we all count on each other through thick and thin. I always wanted a Jeep Wrangler with a World War II Army green paint scheme, so one sits in the driveway as I write this; it is our only vehicle. On an unaccompanied Army tour to Germany, I skimped and saved enough to buy a set of Zeiss binoculars. The same feeling goes for firearms. It is flat amazing shooting a Shiloh Sharps .45-70 rifle, a Smith & Wesson Model 627 .357 Magnum revolver and a Walther PPQ M2 .45 ACP. The same experience happens with a Johann Fanzoj combination 16 gauge shotgun over a 7X57R Mauser rifle, made in 1962 in the Ferlach valley of Austria, or with a similar “drilling” made by master gun producer Ludwig Borovnik at the same location (and which you can read about on this website as well.)

Freedom Arms Model 97 .45 Colt with additional .45 ACP cylinder

Freedom Arms revolvers have a well-deserved reputation as the Rolex watches of single action revolvers and while I thought I understood that comparison, until I extensively fired one I did not realize just what fine machines they are. Built of space-age stainless steel to remarkably precise tolerances for production pieces, they are extraordinarily durable and accurate. Parts are machined in batches; more complicated parts are made in smaller batches. Once all the batches are completed and the all the parts for a model are ready, the highly-skilled Freedom Arms machinists put the revolvers together by hand. Then, other experts assemble the revolver and test it for accuracy at 25 yards – think a shot group as small as a dime to a quarter. You’ll get the actual group shot with your weapon when you buy it.

Close-up of Freedom Arms Model 97 with .45 Colt cylinder. Tolerances are extremely fine.

Then the pieces go to the finishing room. The exterior finish is just as precisely made, with polishing that is the envy of the industry. While stainless steel heat-treated in the 45 R(C) hardness range is almost impervious to the elements, it is also almost “invulnerable” to classic bluing, engraving and color hardening. Tolerances are extremely fine. Some reviewers compare the movement of the trigger, hammer and cylinder to the locking mechanism of a bank vault. Being an old Army guy, I would use a different comparison and just say that the action reminded me of the breech block locking in a 120mm cannon in an Abrams tank, just before the round is fired down-range at a speed of about a mile per second.

Finish on the Freedom Arms revolvers is excellent

Freedom Arms really geared up in 1978, under the direction Wayne Baker and Dick Casull, of with the Model 83 chambered for the .454 Casull pistol cartridge, which for a while was the most powerful handgun cartridge in the world. The company expanded the range of its offerings from the ubiquitous .22 Long Rifle to the monster .500 Wyoming Express and filling in with many hi-performance revolver round in between such as .475 Linebaugh, .44 Magnum, .41 Magnum and .357 Magnum. In what one reviewer called the “thermo-nuclear calibers,” the pistols are “cold, calculating, killing machines. If you suffer from a terminal case of the wheel-gun warm-and-fuzzies, they may not be for you.”

The box tells you exactly what options are on this firearm.

In 1997 Freedom Arms may have sensed this feeling and introduced a down-sized, handier version of the Model 83 chambered for high-demand cartridges such as the .17 HMR, .22 Long Rifle, .327 Federal, .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Special and .45 Colt. Known as the Model 97, in the last twenty years this model has compiled an enviable record both in the field and on the range.

Determining how many revolvers the company [307 883-2468] produces is a difficult proposition. Waiting times after ordering can last in the vicinity of one year. A BATF report of revolver production for the company in 2007 was 376; the BATF in 2012 reported that Freedom Arms manufactured 404 revolvers for the year. For 2015, the total had risen to 499 revolvers. Think about that for a minute. There are approximately 262 work days per year. So for all practical purposes, the men and women at Freedom Arms make only two firearms per day. Production by caliber, of course, is even smaller. My guess is that the company may produce only twenty-five Model 97 Colt .45s because, in my opinion, the monster calibers, such as the .454 Casull, probably take the lion’s share of production.

That is what I fired, a Model 97 in .45 Colt. This particular example has a 5.5-inch barrel, overall length of 10.75 inches, adjustable sights (with an interchangeable gold bead front sight,) black Micarta grips, and a factory trigger/hammer adjustment to a three-pound pull, all weighing in at 2.29 pounds (36.64 ounces.) This configuration gives the firer a sight-radius of 6.75 inches; for reloaders, the barrel twist rate is 1-24 (the number of inches the bullet moves along the bore while the bullet rotates one full turn, in this case 24 inches.) It also had an additional .45 ACP cylinder, that like the .45 Colt cylinder, is line-bored in which the frame and barrel are assembled, and then a cylinder “blank” is fitted. That is then drilled out for each bore through the barrel. As a result, the alignment between each chamber and the barrel is absolutely perfect; in fact each cylinder is marked with the same serial number as the frame, so you know the exact pairing that should be made.

To test the weapon, I chose the seven following factory rounds, as I am not a handloader: Winchester Super X (Cowboy/Target) with 250 grain Lead Flat Nose bullets; Winchester Super X (Target) with 255 grain Lead Round Nose bullets; Ultramax with 250 grain Round Nose Flat Point bullets; Ultramax with 200 grain Round Nose Flat Point bullets; Hornady Critical Defense FTX 185 grain bullets; Black Hills 250 grain Round Nose Flat Point bullets and Sig Sauer Elite Performance V-Crown 230 grain Jacketed Hollow Point bullets.

My first impression was that the Model 97 .45 Colt is a “blast” to shoot. The big bullets make big holes in the paper targets. They should, as anything over 218 grains is over half an ounce of lead. The recoil pushes more than it snaps the hand; the trigger guard did not slam back into my fingers. The second impression is that this firearm will expose batches of ammunition that lack consistency. Using a sandbag rest, the firer will instantly be able to assess which factory rounds are consistent in powder quality and quantity, and also the flight dynamics of the bullets themselves. It can be a harsh verdict and with more than one factory load on that first day and days since that I concluded that I was not going to waste my time or money on firing rounds which were inferior to this revolver’s capability; and for this .45 Colt, the 25-yard accuracy shot group as tested at Freedom Arms was just 0.68 inches center-to-center (shown in top photo.)

As mentioned, you will wait several months after ordering. If you just cannot wait that long, Gunbroker.com usually has several dozen Freedom Arms on auction at any one time. GunsAmerica.com and GunsInternational.com have dozens more for sale, often by regional Freedom Arms FFL-holders who serve as dealers. Two of these that usually have a wide selection of Model 83s and Model 97s are First Stop Guns in Rapid City, South Dakota (605) 341-5211 and SMJ Sports (owned by Steve Bredemeyer) in Columbia City, Indiana (260) 396-2349. I drove 275 miles each way to visit Steve and he patiently showed me several 83s and 97s in a variety of calibers. If you wish to purchase one of these new pistols – and I’d like to meet the shooter who declines after actually holding one of these masterpieces – Steve will promptly ship it to your local FFL location. Instead of a year, you’ll be pulling the trigger in six days.

I do not hunt with a revolver, although it seems to me that this .45 Colt would make a great wild pig weapon. It packs easily and could be used in a pinch for self-defense – the caliber being more than sufficient to drop an attacker with one shot to the center of mass – although considering the five-round cylinder and carrying with the hammer over an empty cylinder gives you only four rounds.

I’ll update this as I find the rounds that work best. After firing twenty-five of each of the seven factory rounds mentioned above, the Sig Sauer Elite Performance V-Crown 230 grain Jacketed Hollow Point bullets and the Ultramax with 200 grain Round Nose Flat Point bullets showed the most promise for accuracy.

If it turns out that hand-loads are far superior, that’s what friends are for and I hope they won’t mind loading for me, especially if I let them shoot this great pistol.

Freedom Arms Model 97 .45 ColtFrench MacLean2023-10-08T15:16:42-05:00

Johann Fanzoj and Ferlach, Austria

Johann Fanzoj Combination 16 gauge/7x57R over-under

The art of gun-making in Ferlach dates back to the 16th century. Austria’s southernmost province, Carinthia, became threatened by periodic attacks from the Venetians to the southwest and the Turks from the southeast. To defend the valuable area, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I ordered that a powerful arsenal be built in the major town of Klagenfurt; the project was completed in 1566 by his son Maximilian II. Max decided that he needed an arms industry that would trump the Trompia Valley center that supplied the Venetian Republic. Thanks to the nearby natural resources of iron and timber, water from rivers cascading down the Karawanken mountains and an already well-established workforce of skilled iron- and metalworkers, a weapon industry evolved that would soon become world famous. For more than nine generations the Fanzoj family has played a significant role in shaping this proud tradition.

In the early days, weapon production was organized as a “house industry.” The manufacturing process was divided strictly into several different tasks. Every master gunsmith had a specialized skill and a weapon went through many a master gunsmith’s hands before it was offered for sale. Master gunsmiths learned the trade from their fathers, and passed the knowledge on to their own sons.

In 1750, having moved to the valley (known as the Dale of Roses) from Holland, the name Fanzoj appeared in the chronicles for the first time as a local gunsmith; this was the same year as Holy Roman Empress of the Habsburg Dynasty Maria Theresa created the first set of guild rules for the gunsmiths of Ferlach. A 1781 census showed that there were 203 master gunsmiths in the village. By 1793, Emperor Francis II granted an exclusive trade mark to the Guild of Ferlach Gunsmiths to protect the “authenticity and quality of the arms from Ferlach.”

By 1845, the number of gunsmiths in Ferlach had grown to 308. By 1876, the craftsmen founded the “Association of Master Gunsmiths,” en elected body that helped procure parts and distribute profits. Two years later, the “Imperial Professional School for the Arms Industry” was founded. One of the future leaders of the Fanzoj firm, Johann Fanzoj, received a Certificate of Gunmastership in 1885. Over the next two decades, Ferlach ceased manufacturing military weapons and began to concentrate on hand-crafted hunting rifles, shotguns and combination/drilling guns.

In 1906, Johann Fanzoj (VI) designed the Ischler – a short, lightweight, single-shot rifle with an external striker – which he dedicated to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, who was a passionate and prolific hunter. The Ischler reportedly never left the Emperor’s side on a hunt and Johann Fanzoj often accompanied him during his legendary hunts. Johann thus became a Purveyor to the Imperial Court of Franz Joseph I.

In the last century, World War I and II hit the Fanzoj family hard economically, with some family members even emigrating to the United States of America during the Depression Era (there were 308 gun-makers in Ferlach in 1934 which dropped to 80 in 1946), but after a short period of stagnation in 1945, the demand for hunting weapons rose once again. Even during the peak years from 1965 to 1980, Fanzoj produced only up to 200 weapons per year. Johann Fanzoj (VIII), then Senior Manager, saw the handwriting on the wall and succeeded in expanding the company to world-wide recognition with new areas of business and trade by contracting production volume even further and concentrating on the top of the top of the line.

Due to his untiring dedication, innovative commercial talents, and investments in the production facilities, Fanzoj weapons today delight hunters around the world. It did not hurt that he became the first Ferlach gunsmith to go on a safari to Africa in 1969 and on his return initiated the era of large caliber double rifles in Ferlach; these quickly became highly esteemed working tools valued among professional hunters in Africa – weapons that could be relied upon in true life and death situations. By 1989, the number of gun-smiths in Ferlach had dropped to 56. Johann Fanzoj continued to be a highly-regarded member of international hunting associations and ethical commissions, and served as the Prior of Carinthia for the International Order of St. Hubertus.

In 1998, Daniela, the daughter of Johann Fanzoj (VIII), succeeded him as company director, after studying in the United States, Russia and Croatia. Together with her younger brother Patrick, an accomplished engineer in charge of the manufacturing process, they form a young and dedicated team that has forcefully implemented their commitment to handcrafted products of superior quality, adding two showrooms – in Zagreb (Croatia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) and strengthening the firm’s image as international experts for hunting and shooting worldwide.

The company takes on only about 20 commissions each year as a custom-made firearm can take as long as three years to design and craft, ranking among the very best in the world and demanding premium prices. Basic models start at €40,000, but custom-designed rifles cost more than 10 times that amount. These prices, in turn, have elevated older Fanzoj weapons into protected heirlooms and highly-desired flawlessly functioning weapons of masterful craftsmanship worth far beyond their original price, when they do appear on the market.

The Fanzoj philosophy is quite simple but elegant – build fine hunting arms – unique, individual pieces of highest artistic and technical value – handcrafted by true masters of their trade with only one goal in mind: to realize the personal vision of the individual Fanzoj customer.

The company is managed by family members who love hunting and have a deep understanding of guns and what a hunter requires of his or her gun. They continue to design and build every precious part of a Fanzoj with one thing in mind – the hunting experience. Currently, there are eleven gun-makers (among which is famed master gunsmith Florian Mutenhaler) and craftsmen that work at the Fanzoj facility in Ferlach. Average gun-making experience per worker is 25 years. Fanzoj weapons have been purchased over the years not only by Emperor Franz Josef, but also former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Fanzoj firm works in the niche where most of the very few remaining high end producers of hunting weapons cannot follow. This is because every single piece of their guns is crafted meticulously by hand and that continues to make their products a worldwide success. Additionally, many Fanzoj creations stretch existing technological limits, for example, in their new bolt action Mauser 98 that they construct not of steel – as had been done since the gun’s inception over 100 years ago – but of titanium.

This particular example of a Johann Fanzoj weapon was made in 1962, a combination over-under gun (known as a Bocksbüchflinte) that married a shotgun with a rifle. This Fanzoj 16-gauge/7x57R, serial number 21 822, has an additional number 2461.62, which means that it was the 2461st gun to be inspected and proofed in Ferlach that year of 1962. Featuring double triggers, it has a 14 inch length of pull; overall length of the weapon is 40 inches. The drop at comb is 1 ¾ inches; the drop at heel is 2 ½ inches. Without the scope, the weapon weighs 6 pounds and 9.6 ounces. Concerning the triggers, known as a German stecher system, the rear trigger is used to lighten the pull and to cock the front trigger. Once engaged in this manner, the front trigger will fire with just slight pressure, increasing accuracy.

The 16-gauge shotgun upper barrel is marked Böhler Blitz Stahl and rifle barrel is marked Böhler Blitz Stahl Spezial G55; it is chambered for 2 ¾ inch shells. The stock is made of dark European walnut; front and rear sling swivels provide a solid point of fixture for whatever sling the owner desires; the butt of the weapon has a horn plate to provide snag-free shouldering of the gun. The weapon features a Kersten breech that is characterized by two flanges sticking out of the barrel unit in the rear to the left and right. These flanges slide into fitting cutouts in the breech and are bolted there by two cross bolts. Such a system is very strong. The coin finished weapon is engraved on the right side of the receiver with a male deer in a forest. On the left side are three Auerhahn, the largest member of the grouse family and an endangered species in Germany and Austria, in low shrubs.

The 7 mm rifle lower barrel is regulated to shoot 4 cm high at 100 meters. This, combined with the flat trajectory of the round, allows for accurate snap shooting from 50 meters to 220 meters. Testing the firearm at 100 yards, using sandbag rests for stability, three round groups achieved a phenomenal accuracy of 5/8 of an inch. The 7×57mm cartridge, also known as the 7 mm Mauser, was developed by Paul Mauser of the Mauser company in 1892 and adopted as a military cartridge by Spain in 1893. It was subsequently adopted by several other countries as the standard military cartridge. Although not used my military forces now, it remains in widespread international use as a sporting round. The 7×57mm has been deservedly described as “a ballistician’s delight.” The rimmed cartridge, 7x57R, was developed from the 7×57 shortly after its introduction for use in break-action rifles and combination guns. A rimmed cartridge greatly simplifies the issues of designing an extractor, particularly in a combination gun or drilling which must also be designed to extract rimmed shotgun shells.

This round became popular in Africa, where it was used on animals up to and including elephants, for which it was particularly favored by noted ivory hunter W.D.M. “Karamojo” Bell, who shot about 800 African Elephants with 1893 pattern 7×57mm military ball ammunition using Rigby Mauser 98 rifles, when most ivory hunters were using larger-caliber rifles. Bell selected the cartridge for moderate recoil, and used 172.8 grain long round-nosed military full metal jacket bullets for reliable penetration. The 7x57mm round was also used by the Indian hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett to put down the infamous man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag besides a few other Man-Eaters of Kumaon (tigers and leopards.)

This quality firearm deserved a quality telescopic sight and indeed received one. The weapon has a Schmidt & Bender Hubertus fixed power 4×32/64 scope made from aluminum alloy, with integrated dovetail and front base plate, so as to fix to the weapon with German claw mounts. These mounts allow the hunter to quickly mount or dismount the scope, depending on the situation. Because the mount has such fine tolerances, once it is snapped on, no confirming rounds are needed to be fired before the hunt begins. The serial number of the scope is 3580. The scope, the optics in which are quite clear, features a German #1 reticule (works excellent at twilight hours.) It is 10.82 inches long and weighs 11.62 ounces.

Schmidt & Bender (often abbreviated as S&B) is a German company specialized in producing high end telescopic sights for hunting, sports, law enforcement and military arms. The company was founded in 1957 in Bievertal, near Giessen in Hesse, by master instrument maker Helmut Bender and instrument maker Helmut Schmidt. The company started with producing telescopic sights for large German (mail order) hunting equipment sales chains under various brand names and gradually started to produce telescopic sights under their own brand name. Since its inception, much of the assembly process is done by hand, which is why the company can only turn out a limited number of scopes annually.

The original sale of the gun appears to have been to a hunting specialty store in Germany. It was purchased from the store by a hunter from Bonn, along the Rhine River, in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Hunting laws and regulations are much different in Austria and Germany than they are in the United States. Landowners and forest masters (Forstmeisters) determine what is to be hunted and at what time of year, rather than state-produced hunting seasons. Therefore, this weapon was designed for the hunter who might be offered an opportunity to hunt birds (flying and on the ground,) deer and foxes on the same outing. The original owner, a businessman, owned a small game area along the Lower Rhine, in which he hunted European Roe Deer, hare, Gray Partridge and Wild Boar. A German-American businessman, and big-game hunter, purchased the weapon in 2013 but did not have an opportunity to hunt with it.

Daniela Fanzoj, after checking the company records, believes that her grandfather, Johann Fanzoj VII, oversaw the construction of the gun.

Johann Fanzoj and Ferlach, AustriaFrench MacLean2015-05-26T12:30:37-05:00

Ludwig Borovnik and Ferlach, Austria

Ludwig Borovnik Drilling

Ferlach, Austria -- A Cradle of Gun-making

In the very southernmost valley of Austria is located the town of Ferlach. About a dozen gun-making companies there craft some of the finest shotguns and rifles in the world. This is the story of one of them and a unique firearm he produced.

Herr Ludwig Borovnik, who was born in 1824 and the mayor of Ferlach, turned his passion into a career and set up business as an independent gunsmith in Ferlach, Austria in 1848. The company that he founded was later taken over by his son, Ludwig Borovnik II; it remained a small, family-run enterprise well into the 1930s.

On April 14, 1942 the family fortunes were undone when all members of the family were deported to Germany on cattle wagons by German authorities. After the end of the war, the family returned to Carinthia and found it in ruins. Just a few years later, Ludwig Borovnik II died of ill health that had never improved since his return from Germany. Ludwig Borovnik III, who had been born in 1925, assumed the role of head of the family and rebuilt the business from scratch.

In the 1950s, Ludwig Borovnik III made use of his language skills to import and sell timber from Yugoslavia. Having got the business off to a good start, he was the first wood-seller in Ferlach to start trading stock wood and rose to become one of Europe’s largest walnut wood traders. Much of the finest examples of the wood found their way to his gun shop as well.

In 1960, Ludwig Borovnik III first met passionate hunter Helmut Horten and his wife Heidi. Their relationship blossomed into a friendship and business partnership that would last 25 years. A great many hunting trips to Yugoslavia were organized, facilitated by Ludwig Borovnik III’s excellent relations with Marshal Josep Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia from the end of World War II until 1980.

Ludwig Borovnik IV assumed leadership of the business in 1986. In what was maybe the proudest business transaction of his career, he received Juan Carlos de Borbon, King of Spain, in his showroom. The King personally inspected the guns that had been ordered for him and was delighted with the manufacturing detail and precise handiwork of the weapons. U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush also ordered a firearm from the company.

Ludwig Borovnik IV headed the company proudly until 2004, when Ludwig Borovnik Jr. took over the responsibilities.

Crafting a Borovnik rifle requires extreme precision. After four years at a special technical school, their gunsmiths also have to undergo more training supervised by the firm’s master gun-maker. As a Borovnik rifle is 90% crafted by hand, without the use of any machines, it can take up to two years to complete. The client is involved at every stage in the manufacturing process from gun-making and stock-making to engraving. Personal wishes can therefore be taken into consideration at any time, and thus each of these precision guns becomes a unique masterpiece.

Expertise handed down through the generations turned the old trade of making war weaponry into the distinctive craftsmanship that has since made Ferlach’s gun-makers world famous. In the hands of a master craftsman each stroke of the file goes towards giving the gun its own personality. Expertise, experience and a love of the profession are however our master gun-makers’ most valuable tools. The engraving is the gun’s face. It gives it beauty and personality. Often it tells of hunting, often of fauns, goblins and fairies and sometimes also of love. Usually however it reflects the owner’s soul. In the highest-end guns, Borovnik engravers invest up to 3,500 hours of work in cutting and chiseling their masterpiece in the steel. The ambition to create a perfect work of art is the constant driving force for Borovnik’s world-famous engravers.

Years of experience and the art of reading the wood are the basic requirements for becoming a master stock-maker. And only the best of them are allowed to work with our exquisite stock woods. Each stock is selected personally by the client and custom finished to fit. Borovnik holds one of the largest and most exclusive stores of stock wood in Europe. All the wood of the weapon’s stock is dried naturally for at least 20 years before use and features highest quality and breathtaking beauty.

Many people mistakenly believe that Ferlach is a trademark – it is not. Rather, Ferlach is a small village where a gun guild was started as early as 1558. Ferlach (in Slovene: Borovlje) is the southernmost town in Austria, about 17 km south of the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt. It is situated in the Rosental Valley of the Drava River, at the base of the northern slope of the Karawanken mountain range. Just south of these mountains is the country of Slovenia. Thanks to the nearby natural resources of iron and timber, water from rivers cascading down the Karawanken mountains and an already well-established workforce of skilled iron- and metalworkers, a weapon industry evolved that would soon become world famous. Nowhere else on earth is such a collection of gun-smithing talent as there is in this little town in southern Austria. Neither is there anything that compares to the gun-smithing school (Höhere Technische Bundeslehranstalt Ferlach) where a young man or woman at the age of 15 to 16 can enter a four-year course in firearm design that makes it possible to build a rifle from scratch with hand tools and graduate with a four-year degree, or five-year course in engineering. Upon completion of the four- or five- year course a graduate can build a rifle, any rifle, be it sidelock, boxlock, double rifle, over-and-under, drilling, bolt-action, side-by-side – you name it – with any stock design and then engrave it or provide inlays of gold or silver. If any gunsmith in the U.S. can compete with the average graduate of Ferlach’s gun-smithing school, there is a good chance he graduated from Ferlach.

The history of the town is depicted in its coat of arms: it features a tree, bee cone, two crossed silver nails and a rifle. Since the 15th century, Ferlach was known for its firearms manufacturers, the main armorer of the Habsburg Monarchy.

In the 1500s, it was absolutely necessary that all the people involved in fabricating a firearm were located together in close proximity. This enabled the barrel maker, the stock maker, and the lock mechanism maker to work together closely to ensure that everyone was performing their task(s) correctly, effectively and efficiently. In 1558, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (who was also the King of Bohemia and the King of Hungary and Croatia) assigned 100 gunsmiths from the Habsburg Netherlands to Ferlach for the purpose of producing arms. According to legend, two Schaschl brothers left Liege, Belgium and were the first to settle in Ferlach to start a gun factory, which was in operation until 1818. During the 30-Year-War (1618 – 1648) arms production in Ferlach went through its first “boom” and capacity expanded. Weapons from Ferlach soon became renowned throughout Europe.

As the individual skills became better and more refined, more and more firearms were manufactured. Eventually, individual gunsmiths began to put their name on the barrel or frame of those guns which they had either manufactured solely or with the help of their fellow Ferlach craftsmen. Since all Ferlach firearms are essentially hand-made per individual special order, very few are exactly alike. In the past, the gunsmiths of Ferlach have produced almost every type of shoulder arm imaginable, including such modern weapons as superposed and juxtaposed rifles and shotguns, hammerless drillings, repeating rifles, 3 barrel rifles, combination guns, four-barrel combination guns (called vierlings), hammer guns of every type, etc. Some of these specimens represent the highest refinement in the gun-makers trade.

In 1946, there were 56 gunsmith companies in Ferlach (at one time there had been over 100), but the numbers dropped continuously. In 1989 only 16 gunsmiths remained and in 2008 only seven active gunsmiths continued producing guns, although this number has increased slightly in the last few years. Most guns manufactured in Ferlach today are by individual special order with a wide range of calibers/gauges and other special features and options. As of this writing, these existing gunsmiths in alphabetical order appear to be: Ludwig Borovnik (1848), Johann Fanzoj (1790), Wilfried Glanznig, Josef Hambrusch (the oldest firm beginning in 1752), Karl Hauptmann, Christian Hausmann, Gottfried Juch, Josef Just, Jakob Koschat, Peter Michelitsch, Johann & Walter Outschar and Herbert Scheiring. Legendary firms that are no longer in business include Josef Winkler, Franz Sodia and Johann Sigott. Top engravers who have lived in Ferlach and who work on individual pieces for the gun-makers have included such names as Mack, Krondorfer, Orou, Schaschle, Singer, Maurer, Widmann, Stogner, de Florian, Plucher and Oblitschnig.

Each of the master gun-makers does some things a little differently from the other and they might also offer some things, which the other gun-makers do not. All use Böhler Antinit, Böhler Blitz and Böhler Super Blitz steel, which are so strong that they allow the thickness of the barrels to be reduced, thus reducing the final weight of the weapon. The gun-makers also make their own actions (with the exception of bolt-action rifles). They tend to be a little secretive about some of their processes and methods of manufacture, even from each other. A customer, who decides to visit Ferlach to have a gun made, should allow a week in the village to visit every gun-maker, if the client has not already picked out a gun-maker.

Ferlach received town privileges in 1930 and today remains a center for the production of hunting rifles. Currently the town has 7,377 inhabitants. The Ferlach Guild (Genossenschaft) represented most of Ferlach’s gun-makers until it was dissolved in 2004. Current prices reportedly range from $25,000 to $500,000 per piece, which take six to ten months to produce; at the high end, production can take two years. Only Beretta has been making guns longer than Ferlach and is still in business. The gun-making industry brings in $8,500,000 to $10,000,000 to the town annually.

One of the classic combinations of weapon made in Ferlach is of two shotgun barrels arranged on top of a rifle barrel, known as a “drilling” gun. The drilling is not intended for target shooters, but predominantly used for high-seat hunting, driven hunts and game bird shoots, making it a gun that fulfils all expectations and lives up to pretty much any hunting situation.

The example we will review today is a Ludwig Borovnik 20-gauge/.222 Remington Magnum drilling, serial number 40 3017, was crafted in Ferlach, Austria in 1969. The number 40 was the sole proprietorship number for the firm of Ludwig Borovnik and is found on their arms. The weapon has side-by-side 24¼” barrels (full/modified chokes for the shotgun barrels.) Featuring double triggers, it has a 14 ⅝” length of pull; overall length of the weapon is 41 ½”. Without the scope, the weapon weighs 6 pounds and 12.8 ounces. Shotgun barrels are marked Böhler Blitz Stahl and rifle barrel is marked Böhler Blitz Stahl Spezial G55. The rifle barrel is also marked Ludwig Borovnik-Ferlach. The weapon also has a marking of 128.69 indicating that it was the 128th weapon to be proofed in 1969 by the Ferlach Genossenschaft to ensure its safety and quality control. The weapon has two triggers with a Blitz Action – a design where the moving parts of a break-open gun’s action are mounted to the trigger plate. The receiver locking system is a Greener Crossbolt, a tapered round bar, operated by the opening lever, passing transversely through the standing breech and a matching hole in a rib extension; to strengthen the lock-up.

When the drilling is set for the shotgun mode (Sch) on the top switch, the front trigger fires the right shotgun barrel and the rear trigger fires the left. The lower butt-stock of the weapon has a special compartment that holds five .222 Remington Magnum rifle rounds under a sterling silver access door. The coin finished drilling is engraved on the right side of the receiver with two deer (male and female) in a forest. On the left side is a pair of ducks over a pond. The pistol grip cap features a likeness of the Auerhahn, the largest member of the grouse family and an endangered species in Germany and Austria. Other areas of the receiver have floral engravings. Today, Ludwig Borovnik’s shop in Ferlach is: Ludwig Borovnik KG, Präzisionsjagdwaffen Gewehrschäfte Aller Art, at Bahnhofstrasse 7.

The weapon has a Pachmayr Decelerator Recoil Pad that was probably installed after the weapon was received by Flaig’s Custom Guns in 1970. Flaig’s (just north of Pittsburg in Millvale, Pennsylvania) commissioned Ludwig Borovnik to produce several drillings and combination over-under shotgun/rifles in American calibers for export, although the numbers were small considering the time it took the small Borovnik shop to make it each weapon. In this era, Borovnik made 168 total weapons per year. To date, this 20-gauge/.222 Remington Magnum combination by Borovnik is the sole example to appear on the secondary market and may be the only weapon Borovnik ever made in this caliber pairing, given that most of his weapons were sold in Europe and these are not popular European calibers. This weapon has Flaig’s motif engraved on the trigger guard. Charles Flaig died in the early 1990s and his store closed soon afterward. During this era, 98% of few Borovnik arms imported to the United States went through his firm. A rear sight rises into the “up” position, when the tang selector is moved to the rifle (K) setting. In this setting, the front trigger fires the rifle.

The caliber .222 Remington Magnum is now out of standard production, the last rounds made in mass in 1998, although selected manufacturers make limited numbers every few years. The caliber is just slightly more powerful than the .223 (50 to 100 feet per second faster at the muzzle.)

The weapon has a Zeiss telescopic sight. On November 17, 1846, 30-year-old mechanic Carl Zeiss opened a workshop and a small store in Jena’s Neugasse 7. In 1892, Carl Zeiss built the first telescopic sight (based on Beaulieu-Marconnay design) for sniper rifles and machine guns. Zeiss designed the C-series for the American hunter with integral objective and ocular bells and an integral adjustment turret. The one-piece construction allows perfect lens alignment, micro-precise adjustments and structural integrity, with quick focusing, rubber armoring at the eyepiece, T-Star multi-layer coating and parallax setting (free at 100 yards.)

A Zeiss Diavari-C 1.5-4.5x 18mm Rifle Scope serial number 204031, manufactured in 1987 in Wetzlar/West Germany, is mounted on the drilling using special German claw mounts manufactured by EAW – Ernst Apel GmbH, Würzburg/Germany, made in their factory at the village of Gerbrunn – ensure the scope is automatically bore-sighted, whenever it is mounted – which eliminates the need to fire a confirmation shot in the field. It is a variable power from 1.5-magnification to 4.5-magnification. Eye relief is 3.54.” When set on 1.5-magnification, the scope has a field of view of 72 feet at a range of 100 yards. The length of the scope is 12.28.” The weight of the scope, which has the older steel tube instead of aluminum, is 16 ounces without the claw rings. With the scope mounted, the weapon weighs 8 pounds and 12.8 ounces.

An Austrian hunter would use a weapon of this nature to hunt birds with the shotgun barrels and perhaps a fox or large hare with the rifle. In the United States, with our different hunting laws, and depending on the state, the weapon could be used for turkey or pheasant with success.

Ludwig Borovnik and Ferlach, AustriaFrench MacLean2015-08-17T12:14:37-05:00