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It's not Bond Street's finest, but my first double rifle showed up today. A couple of months ago I started looking for a 9.3x74R Merkel 140 with set trigger and ejectors; last week I found one in essentially new condition and I'm looking forward to having some fun with it. Overall I'm very impressed...a nice hunk of wood and steel, to paraphrase Bill Ruger.

The bottom of the chambers include a marking of "11AA". I think the "AA" portion means the gun was proofed in 2000 (i.e., A = 0, B = 1, C = 2, etc. if I remember the German proofing date codes correctly) but that doesn't seem to jibe with GSI's involvement with importing Merkels (the now defunct Cape Outfitters imported this DR). Am I reading the codes wrong, or did multiple companies import Merkels for awhile?

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taw1126, I have a 140E that was bought from CAPE OUTFITTERS and is stamped as imported by cape Outfitters in very fine stamping on the bottom of the barrel flats! The proofing date on mine is 12AA (Dec 2000 according to your take on German proofing date codes) when I bought mine on 5/23/2001 from Cape Outfitters, New. At that time he had five 140s Only two of which were 140"E" (ejectors) and the others were 140-1s, with extractors, in stock, and the retail was $4695 + $15 shipping, for the 140E! NOW! I can guarintee you will not find a NEW cased 140E today for $5K! If you do, and you don't want it, let me know, because I'll buy it in a heartbeat!