King of the closet queens?

[ironglow]

   For a purely decorative rifle, one would be hard pressed to find a class more fanciful than the old schuetzen class rifles, as have been used in Europe for centuries.
   ..But they are not just closet queens..they can shoot!  Schuetzen competition is very old..perhaps somebody here, can rustle up a date when it really started.  I found 1842, but not earlier...
   It began with the Germanic speaking peoples of Europe, likely Germany or Switzerland.  Since the competitor only takes his rifle
   out to shoot once or twice a year, it looks like part of the competition, is tom have the most "ahhhs" producing rifle in town.

   The  sport spread to the UK, and then to the USA, at Creedmore, Long Island, NY...where competitors seemed to be not so taken with carvings and engravings, the rifles becoming more utilitarian in appearance.

   https://www.recoilweb.com/story-of-the-schuetzen-rifle-145154.html

[ironglow]

  See Bill's post, here..interesting.  https://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php?topic=292219.0

[jedman]

The rifle in the second picture is an Austrian Werndl rifle.  I have one that I rebuilt from a wall hanger and is now rebarreled to 45-70 and shoots MOA. I have the newer 1873-77 model and the rotating drum breech block is really a cool action type. I would say it’s every bit as fast to reload and just as strong as the 1873 Trapdoor rifle the US had in the same time period.
The one pictured is gorgeous and would definitely be a safe queen. Some guns are really fine art pieces.
Thanks for posting those pics !  It’s nice to see what a craftsman can do with an old military rifle.
jedman