Quote:

---

Does "Stutzen" merely mean "short rifle" or "short hunting rifle" or does it have to be a full stocked rifle as well?

---

Here is what I wrote some time ago for the GGCA on the German use of the word "Stutzen":
regarding your article in RIFLE #231, p.106 on "Mannlicher" stocks, you stepped into one of the many traps of the complicated German language: Unfortunately there are three very similar verbs (two of them even spelled and spoken the same) with different meanings:
1.) stützen or stuetzen (ü and ö are only short forms of ue and oe) = to support, to prop up. This is the one you tried to use to explain "Stutzen".
2.) stutzen = to hesitate, to become suspicious: obviously wrong.
3.) stutzen = to trim, to cut back, to shorten: This is the one to use! Since the 1700s the southern Germans and Austrians used Stutzen for any rifle shorter then a long infantry musket. (the Swiss in their slightly different dialect say Stutzer instead)
For instance the Stutzen M1768 for Austrian Grenzscharfschützen = frontier sharpshooters (the Austro-Hungarian "frontier" to the Turk empire was a broad military zone with a 300 year history of skirmishes, raids and guerilla warfare): You would possibly describe this as an "Jaeger"-type flintlock over-under, combination rifle.(one barrel rifled for accurate shooting, the other smooth for rapid reloading) Yes, it was military issue!
Another example:The military straight pull M95 Mannlicher came in three designations:
Gewehr M95: Long infantry rifle with 30" barrel
Karabiner M95: carbine for cavalry use with 20" barrel and sling attachment on the left side of the stock.
Stutzen M95: short rifle for special (mountain-, artilllery-) troops, 20" barrel, same length as carbine, but sling swivels on the bottom like the rifle.
So the Austrians were apt to call any rifle a Stutzen, even the 24" barreled, half stocked, 7x64 or 8x60 M1925 Mannlicher-Schoenauer is variously called the "Hochgeschwindigkeitsstutzen" or "Hochrasanzstutzen" in old catalogs.
Southern Germans, Bavarians, also called heavy, full length, half stocked Schuetzen target rifles "Scheibenstutzen" or "Feuerstutzen", the look alike indoor 4 mm target rifles "Zimmerstutzen".
So originally the purely southern German, Austrian and Swiss word was neither connected to short rifles or full length foreends.
In Germany proper, except the southernmost part neighboring Austria and Switzerland, the use of the word Stutzen or Stutzer for a rifle was totally unknown until after 1900! Instead, short rifles were called Karabiner and full stocks were circumscribed as stocked to the muzzle.
When Steyr started selling their Mannlicher-Schoenauer sporting rifles in 1905, the short barreled, full stock, double set trigger versions became the most popular in continental Europe. (The British preferred the long barreled, single trigger, half stocked versions) As the Austrians called both versions "Stutzen" in their catalogs, only then this became a German household word for a full stocked, short rifle! So, the expression "Stutzen" for a full stocked short rifle is hardly older then your "Mannlicher stock"! (Well,at least over here Mannlicher is still a protected trade mark, while Stutzen is not!)
By now "Stutzen" in common German use means a short, about 50 cm = 20" barrel rifle with a full length stock up to the muzzle. Half stocked short barreled rifles are not called "Stutzen" in common German parlance (except the extreme South), while longer barreled, full stocked examples like the 60 cm barrel Mannlicher-Schoenauer NO below are described sometimes as "mit Stutzenschäftung" = stocked like a Stutzen, though they are not Stutzens.
So Dorleac's wonderful K actioned, 22" barrel rifle shown above is a "borderline Stutzen" at best, as the barrel length is 2" longer than a real Stutzen, but still 2" shorter than the German standard rifle barrel.

Post Extras