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I acquired this Heeren falling-block rifle in 2018; it is by conception a German-Austrian crossbred: German as it was assembled in Hamburg by rifle maker F. Cieplik and proofed in Germany in 1969, and Austrian as the Heeren action was manufactured in Graz by August Orechowsky:

• There is not much information available online about rifle maker Cieplik in Hamburg and the only mention to him that I found is in an article about rifle makers Hartmann & Weiss https://www.hartmannandweiss.com/presse/10-01-ss.pdf into which one can read that “ Gerhard Hartmann was 15 (comment: in the mid-50’s) when he found Cieplik, a small hometown gunmaker in Hamburg to take him on for a four-year apprenticeship”. Any additional information on Cieplik would therefore be much welcomed.
• Thanks to Axel Eichendorff - Kuduae, there is more data available about August Orechowsky. Kuduae shared the following in Waidmannsheil (Winter 2013): “In 1947 the Austrian gunmaker August Orechowsky in Graz, trademark “Orea”, started to assemble the tooling necessary for making Heeren actions. From 1950 to 1970 Orea made about 350 Heeren rifles. Actions were also sold to Glaser in Zürich (after their supply of Omega actions was used up), Schwarz in Bern, Swiss also, and v.Hofe/Gehmann in Karlsruhe, Germany. Orea incorporated some improvements to the basic Heeren action, like a redesigned extractor and coil springs”.
This Heeren rifle is chambered for the versatile 7x65R calibre; she is to my personal taste an elegant stutzen engraved in the ‘eichenlaub’ style. Total length is 105 cm for a 65 cm barrel and weight is 3,4kg unscoped / 4 kg scoped.

Top line, from buttstock to front sight:

The Heeren action:

Additional markings under the wood line:

The scope is a Karl Kaps model Variabel 1,5-7:

When I got it one of the turrets was blocked, probably by dessicated lubricant, and after exhausting all means to unblock it without potential damage I sent it back to the factory in Asslar/Wetzlar (Germany) https://www.kaps-optik.de/en/sport-optics.html . They got it back in order and, what a great family-managed company that values customer relationship, refused to charge me; I therefore sent some wine to Herr Holger Kaps in order to thank him for his gesture.

With RWS factory ammunition, the KS 10,5 grams / 162 grains ammunition is the best match regarding accuracy:

I plan to take this Heeren rifle out for roe buck stalking this year, hopefully from early June 2020 if lockdown lifted by then!

Louis

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"Everything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger"

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