Spectacularly specific Ernst Apel advert for old drilling owners!

Pine Marten

Well-Known Member
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"Do you have a drilling with claw mounts and you'd like to change the scope, but the price is just too high?"


Erm, yes, could well be actually, how did you know? And what do you suggest?

"We have the optimal economic solution for you! Ask your gunsmith or us directly for more information on the different ways of modernising your gun".

OK, so the choice of illustration is weird, but then in a hunting magazine, it actually stands out (this is from Le Chasseur Francais). And you know what? If I stumble across the money, I will indeed call Ernst Apel. And while I'm at it, I'll also ask to speak to the marketing guy to congratulate him. No reams of technical nonsense here, just a solution to a user problem. Nice work.

Here's what they actually have in mind: http://www.eaw.de/assets/files/2014/27_EM_allg.pdf
 
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What a wonderful, naively weird choice of images.

I don't think it's naive at all, I think it's carefully considered. It has massive standout compared to the usual images of square-jawed types manfully striding up a mountain carrying a load of expensive hunting technology. The muted colours and the imagery are tremendously different and therefore noticeable. The three poses of the girl are saying that she wants your attention, she's listening to your problem, she has a solution for you, and she won't tell anyone you sort of cheated and did it for cheaper than others would. She won't share it with the the Alpha Male with designer stuble in the Harkila/Blaser/Beretta ad on the opposite page. And who doesn't trust a smiling little girl?

There's a bold commercial genius to this advert.
 
Nope, it's from the current Le Chasseur Francais wild boar special edition, available in French newsagents. I've seen it before earlier this year but forgot about it. So they've clearly identified this specific consumer need as sizeable enough to warrant chasing after.
 
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I don't trust smiling little girls.

This advert made me run screaming.
 

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Thanks for this.
I have Suhl bases on my 1927 combination gun, but no rings, and this is definitely interesting, as each set of rings would cost about $600 USD, and require my sending the entire gun to an Austrian gunsmith 1,000 miles away.
 
You're welcome. But you have to let us know whether the little girl scares you like she does Grandhubert or whether you're inclined to buy some stuff from her.
 
You're welcome. But you have to let us know whether the little girl scares you like she does Grandhubert or whether you're inclined to buy some stuff from her.
I never saw the movie, "Carrie", so I am not scared off. I like simple ads which make a point, like the old black and white Volkswagen ads.

Right now, I am dialing in my 7x57R combo gun for deer season, with the iron sights. I have a few loads working, so now need to practice with it at 25 to 200 yards and see how it shoots for me, which load to use, trajectories, and my comfort zone.
 
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If I'm to be honest ‎and that girl was 5 years older I'd have been convinced it was an add for a well dodgy 1970's X rated Germanic film set in a school Changing Room.

K
 
Thanks for that. What annoys the hell out of me is I own a Sauer 3000. The most popular drilling ever made. It has a 1.5-6x36 diavari on it, one of the most popular scopes every made for drillings. Yet when I ask various technical guys (and I"m not going to mention which ones from the UK or flipping Germany) what do I need to order to put on a Swarovski rail scope, I can't get a straight answer. Not even after I take photos with micrometer etc.

God willing I will buy a blaser drilling in the next year and it will use the standard blaser mounting system and I can have all the picatinny, saddle mounts, red dot, hubble scopes I want on it by simply paying money, getting my blaser screwdriver and putting it on myself.
 
mchughb -
I had that same question, and talked with several expert gunsmiths about rail mounted scopes, who are dealers for Zeiss, Swarovski, and Meopta. Zeiss has come out, about two years ago, with claw mounts for the Suhl bases, with rail adapters. I have some notes on it, and downloaded photos from them to match the notes. I will pull those together and post them.
 
Actually I have no idea what sort of price a set of EAW mounts commands. Anyone know the likely sort of price range for these?

£350 to £400 plus fitting if required. That's in the UK of course, cut that by 70% in the rest of the world where people don't get ripped off...rant over. LOL
 
I was pleasantly surprised when I asked Alan Rhone to quote for Recknagel rings to fit my combination gun's claw bases. The rings 1" rings were just over £100. Fitting would be two / three hours by trained gunsmith.

I have subsequently cut some claws onto the bottom of leupold rings. Got the front one roughed out and now starting to fit.

claw mounts need the front ring to be mounted at the front of scope and this can seriously hamper fitting a longer scope nice and low. The swing mount overcomes this. I have played with these swing mounts fitted on a combination gun. They are nice and neat, but just don't seem right. Claws are so much nicer, and given that you can get unfinished rings, that is the way I would err, unless I wanted to fit a very different type of scope.
 
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Thanks Southern. I've made inquiries about the ziegler and eaw and recknagel. I'm not happy with their responses and I won't be repeating them here. I find it hard to believe that the most common drilling with the most common scope in the most common mounting system for drillings needs a sub millimetre accuracy before they can recommend the mounting system that will fit. Nobody asks for the width of the slots in a picatinny rail for goodness sake.

I really just wanted a lower base and being able to mount a red dot for my driven hunts but I'm shooting enough animals each week with the open sights so I guess I'll just put up with the claw mount and the high zeiss diavari until I sell it and get a modern drilling.
 
For interest I attached good close up pics and after that received positive responses - initial general question responses wern't brilliant.
I haven't asked Ziegler, but responses sourcing a mounting system for my MSch M1903 from both EAW & Recknagel subsequently have been good - if somewhat difficult to analyse via their on-line catalogues.
No pricing from them as they only work through their distributors, but pricing from them in both Germany and the UK are somewhat different, especially if you have Euro's to pay for them. Approx £60 cheaper in Germany inc shipping.
However, in the UK price was approx £400+fitting, so I guess if they make them for your drilling & are able to supply from their range, that's near to where the cost would be in UK.
 
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