The most ornate military-issued rifle of the 20th Century
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Above we see a beautiful example of a World War II J.P. Sauer and Sohn’s produced drilling in 12ga side-by-side (SXS) over a 9.3x74R M.30 rifle along with case and accessories that is up for auction at Rock Island next month. This unlikely military arm was ordered by Goering for use as the M30 Survival rifle for Luftwaffe aircrews operating over the vast expanses of North Africa. Just 2,456 of these handy 7.5-pound break actions were produced in 1941-42 for the service and today they are an extremely rare firearm that is worth mega bucks even in poor condition (this particular example is estimated to fetch $18-25K)
Never heard of the 9.3x74R? It is a .366-caliber cartridge that dates to about the time of the Boer War that was big medicine down on the veldt. The round was popular with German farmers in pre-Great War African colonies as well as great white hunters on the continent who found it was adequate for everything from the elephant to the dik-dik, a small (20-lb) but very fast antelope. In many parts of Africa today, the 9.3x74R is still loaded and used regularly and Ruger offers it in a chambering for their No.1 Farquharson style-trophy rifle.