Can someone tell me what makes a rifle a "Stutzen"? Is it just the shorter barrel/overall length with the full length stock? Or, is there more to it than that? Saw several on a drive hunt today and really liked the short/handy length...
Thanks. Dave
German, wikepedia describes a stutzen as a short hunting rifle. Usually with full stock.
Origins of the word stutzen, I don't speak German but I was told by a gun maker some years ago who makes quite a few of these rifles that stutzen means shooting. Doesn't stutzenfest translate as shooting festival or is that just a made up word.
I have just looked on the google translate page and it says the word means support or back up, which would tie in with idea of a short rifle perhaps used by support units in an army who would have been issued with the shorter carbine. Or does it refer to a weapon carried say by a tracker who wanted a shorter rifle that would only be fired at short range? Incidentally the gunsmith at the time was building a stutzen with a longish barrel (24" or so) in .270win that he showed us. So perhaps it was meant that the barrel is supported along its entire length??
I think that most of us regard a stutzen as a short barrelled rifle where the stock extends all the way to the muzzle. I believe the Americans often refer to such a stock as a Mannlicher stock after the company which made many rifles in this style.
Dalua how does your hunting dictionary describe the word Kipplauf. I take it to mean a single shot break action rifle.
That could be the whole deal right there and it's as much (or more) the type of stock than the length... That's something that aggravates the hell outta me with the German language... One word can mean different things depending on the subject.....
It refers to the whole package: a short rifle with a full-length stock. Blaser's single shot or Kipplauf rifle for example is sold in a variant with a full-length stock with they refer to as "stutzen". My own Steyr Mannlicher Classic full stock is mechanically exactly the same as the Classic Mountain version, it's the stock that tilts it into "stutzen" territory. You're missing the main point though, which is that they handle brilliantly and look beautiful. I think some of the older ones have barrels supported along the length, but certainly mine has a free-floating barrel, which means that you can only get away with using proper high-quality, well-seasoned wood for the stock to avoir warping. People say that they lose zero after several shots and so on, but in my experience it's me that loses the zero, not the rifle...
As for the German language, I find it to be a great one, but it's made more interesting by the fact that everhwere has its' own dialect. "Hochdeutsch" or standard German is for foreigners.
It refers to the whole package: a short rifle with a full-length stock.
Walter Frevert disagrees. He says that a Stutzen is a relatively short rifle.
I'm sure he wouldn't disagree that most of them are full-stocked, just like the Blaser you mention.