German Shotgun Identification Help

T

TopMCITWS

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Looking for a little help to help a friend in getting some additional information about an older shotgun made in Germany. Enclosed are some pictures of the gun. There is a switch on the side (opposite of ejection port) which will convert the gun from semi-auto to auto. The safety is a lever situated right behind the trigger guard. This was purchased a little over two years ago by a friend living in Michigan. He has fired it on multiple occasions and it shoots flawlessly -- he would just like to gain a little information about it, such as: who made it? Approximately when it might have been made? How rare might it be?

Appreciate any input that anyone could share. Thank you.

Attempted to load pictures, but technology did not want to support that effort. One final descriptor of the shotgun would be that it has striking similarities with a Browning A5 Self-Loading Shotgun made in the early 1900; however, it is clearly marked as being made in Germany and written on the non-ejector side is: Rheinmetall Nr. 4
 
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Semi-auto to auto? I think not. How about a magazine blocker as on the A-5 giving you a single shot vs. semi-auto loading. With no pic, sounds like some kind of copy of the Browning. GW
 
GoatWhiskers -- Appreciate the input. I was curious about the claimed purpose of the selector switch, single to semi makes a whole lot more sense. Thank you.
 
John Browning added the magazine cut off feature so the hunter in the field could easily change out the chambered round as hunting conditions changed.

That is swapping #6 shot for #4 shot as the chambered round, or should that 12 point buck show up, slip in a slug round.
 
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The Rheinmetal Nr4 Shotgun is different from a Browning A5, since it has a box magazine, obviously, not a tubular magazine.

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The company was founded in 1899 as "Rheinische Metallwaaren- und Maschinenfabrik Actiengesellschaft" (later renamed to Rheinmetall) was/is a defence company involved mostly in guns/grenades, but also in small arms.

In 1901 Rheinmetall acquired the Dreyse company in Sömmerda (a small town in the Thuringia region).
There, production of fuses, pistols, small bore rifles and ammunition was continued or set up.
(Another known product from Sömmerda is the Dreyse 1907 pistol in .32 acp.)

After WWI, Rheinmetall moved increasingly into non-military production.

As a part of the newly discovered business the Rheinmetall Nr. shotgun was developed as of the October 14, 1919, German patent 358357 application.

Said patent shows a shotgun looking very similar to the Browning A5, but having a fixed barrel and a rotating looking breech device.

Maybe they used a pic of the A5 in the patent application..... :confused:


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By the way: good ole’ John didn’t add the magazine cutt-off – it was, in fact, FN in 1904. And according to US patent #845,075 the inventors of the magazine cut-off were the Belgian Henri Frenay (FN’s manager at that time) and a German with the name Hans Graeve.

Regarding the magazine cut-off of the Rheinmetall: although the idea of the cut-off wasn’t new, Rheinmetall had a German patent No. 374,071 filed in German Patent Office in February 1922. The cut-off device on the Rheinmetall shotgun is a little bit different.

Best regards

Martin
 
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