My Merkel 223 Double rifle finally arrived.

Waiting for the rifle was like waiting for Christmas eve when I was 6 years old, I had already spotted what was in the packages but they were not yet to be opened.

Un-wrapping the many layers of paper, and finally touching the leather case, I hesitated a bit. Would the expectations just be expectations and the feeling of the Merkel not really be the beginning of a dream of an African buffalo.

The firering pins holes were small; this means that the gun was born as a 223 double rifle, rather than a converted shotgun. The balance of the gun is perfect, the state of the gun is virtually unfired and smooth as silk, I suspect that it was never really used for hunting. Since the production year is 87, before "die vende" and the missing Q1 mark I guess that it was a rifle sold in the DDR, but i find that hard to believe.

The Caliber is .375 Flanged, a little more than I need for the hunting here in northern Europe, but just enough gun for Africa. I still could use it for driven boar in the winter time and the scopes are just made for that.

The 375 is the legal minimum for big five in most parts of Africa, and I couldn’t really face myself pointing a Mauser rifle at any cape buffalo. So the 375 Flanged seemed a reasonable choice for a double rifle.

I have my own 200 meter range, just outside the house, but I haven’t fired the Merkel yet. I have waited so long for this moment, so I will have to find a sunny afternoon; accept the fact that I am no longer just dreaming a Buffalo but now am in the doing. I suppose that all the shooting I have done since I was 5 and my father came back from Kenya with an elephant but without a Buffalo has been in preparation for that lone old bull under a Thorne tree. Thinking about it I expect that old bull to be waiting for me somewhere in Zimbabwe, old as the mountains, and relocated from Kenya’s tourist traps.

Darz Bor, Peter Frost Hørlyck