Africa Queen

I found by chance the below Mannlicher Schoenauer High Velocity model in cal. 9,3x62 in Pretoria (South Africa) while on a business trip in August 2015 and I bought it from the estate of the late Dr Lucas Potgieter, who had passed away some years before. Lucas Potgieter had been, at least for people of the older generations, a firearms and hunting expert in RSA and had also set-up the rifle shop called Die Kruivat / The Powder Keg in Roodeport, near Pretoria. The rifle, which had obviously seen much use, was in good condition and the Antinit steel barrel was pristine; it had been manufactured in Austria in 1936 and probably exported shortly after to SA as the barrel is engraved with “G.T. DU PLESSIS – TRANSVAAL – 1937”.

Buying this rifle had been easy, then trouble started. The third-party intermediary that I had commissioned in SA for exporting the rifle and that I had paid upfront discovered first that as this rifle had never been registered by the SA Central Firearms Registry, it had no legal existence in SA and could therefore not be exported to France; that’s at least what I was told. All numerous amicable options that were subsequently tested for getting the rifle out of country failed and the situation never progressed until June 2017 when I hired a SA lawyer for resolving the issue with my local third-party intermediary; the situation was then miraculously unlocked by threat of legal action, all export clearances were granted and, in February 2018 the rifle was delivered to me in France, two years and half after having been bought!

The long awaited Mannlicher Schoenauer then went for rejuvenation to the rifle maker the world envies to the French and who I will not name owing to his well-known modesty. I got it back factory-new some time ago with well oil-polished wood (the stock had been coated in SA with a protective but ugly varnish), a new deep blueing, a leather-covered butt pad (replacing the previous rubber one), to mention only the major parts of this “once in a lifetime” check-up. I also had the 4x32 Zeiss Diatal riflescope the rifle was equipped with a 1,5-6x36 Zeiss Diavari one that I have had for some years waiting for such a project.

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Only minimal alterations from the factory model were made in SA by previous owners: a rifle scope side mount installed and the steel butt plate with trap door was removed but could easily be reinstalled.
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This rifle was delivered with the Antinit steel barrel with full rib option, if we refer to the Stoeger 1939 catalog previously shared by Rothhammer.
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The initial owner
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Du Plessis is a French-sounding name and the family probably came along with the French “Huguenots” that emigrated to southern Africa in the very early XVIII century. There are, according to online searches, many Du Plessis now living in SA but if any of the Forum’s South African members could by chance get some information on who G.T. du Plessis was, then I would be much grateful for that.