first Merkle buy

[matt koepnick]

I went to the OGCA show on Sat at Wilmington Ohio. The misses and I were amazed at the number of quality doubles we saw at this show. I got to looking at a nice Merkel 47E a fellow collector had for sale.It had beautiful straight grained red toned wood, and handled nicely. It wound up following me home at the Wife's insistence. Came with a nice bonus Emmebi case too.
It is a 12 gauge, 28 inch bbls, PistolGrip with Splinter FA. Has Double triggers and also 3 inch chambers. Weighs 6Lbs 14 oz. 14.5 LOP. The drops are 1 5/8 by 2 5/8 which have become my magic numbers. My only concern was the gun is tightly choked at .018 and .035. I bought the unit and gambled I could make do.
So this am I took the new to me gun out to local gun club and managed to tie my only other 80% score made with the Win 21 I got earlier this year. I shot my new Merkel as nice as that Win which is my magic gun. All in all I was quite pleased with this first foray into the world of Merkel shotguns. May have to look into getting another one...
Life is good.. Mattly