2nd try Lightweight 20ga SxS?

Punkkinen has two wonderful Geco 20 gauge SxS's for sale on the EE. I which I had that longer one with 28!inch barrels when I lived in South Saskatchewan!
No hun, sharptail or pheasant would have been safe from Prairie Storm shotshells.
 
Brutus said:
Punkkinen has two wonderful Geco 20 gauge SxS's for sale on the EE. I which I had that longer one with 28!inch barrels when I lived in South Saskatchewan!
No hun, sharptail or pheasant would have been safe from Prairie Storm shotshells.
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Oh, they are indeed very nice. I have a hard time finding information on these though. These are german made?

I'm not totally against fixed chokes. Seems one less variable to worry about. Once you learn how they perform, you're set.
 
huntingfish said:
Oh, they are indeed very nice. I have a hard time finding information on these though. These are german made?

I'm not totally against fixed chokes. Seems one less variable to worry about. Once you learn how they perform, you're set.
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Those guns are essentially a Merkel. GECO is an abbreviation for Gustav Genschow & Company. Its kinda like the German equivalent of "Orvis". They had GDR manufacturers make them guns and then they branded them with GECO buttplates and name engarvings. These are very robust guns that will last a long time if cared for properly. The ones listed look very nice. I have a fondness for German shotguns. I think they are underrated. They are typically not as "sleek" and "lively" as a British gun or a Spanish gun modelled after the British style, but they are tough and well engineered. Many people pay much more for mediocre offerings made in the USA and get a lot less gun IMO.

I know there are exceptions to all of the above and I have no connection to the seller in this case. Just trying to sharpen your research.
 
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The original Gustav Genschow company was taken over by the Nazis, being owned by a Jewish entrepreneurial family.
The two GECO 20 gauge guns offered for sale were made in the VEB Thalmann Werke, the East German consolidated shotgun factory. The factory put the name Merkel, Sauer, and Simson on their products but they were not made up to the standard of the historic names they bore. They were of adequate quality at the Q1 standard.
The Thalmann Werke was a major manufacturing enterprise that also made motorcycles. Ernst Thalmann was a prominent German Communist Politician who was executed by the Nazis.
The GECO name only survives as an ammunition brand these days.
 
saskbooknut said:
The original Gustav Genschow company was taken over by the Nazis, being owned by a Jewish entrepreneurial family. (...) Ernst Thalmann was a prominent German Communist Politician who was executed by the Nazis.
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Geez, and I thought we had drama where I work :rollseyes:

Thanks for that mini historical moment. It's great stuff!
 
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