Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Merkel K3 single shot rifles???

If you would have told me 15 or ever 10 years ago that I would own break open single shot rifles with skinny barrels and iron sights I’d have said you wuz crazy! I pretty much owned nothing but heavy barreled “beanfield” type rifles, many in Magnum calibers.

Well as it turns out, I’m a short range meat hunter and 95% of my shots are under 200 yards. I’ve also found that good bullets launched at 2,800 FPS or less tend to do a lot less damage than the magnums. I've hunted with T/C contenders, Hi-walls, Ruger#1's, Rem 700's with followers and a couple dozen single shot Coopers, so the single shot break open Merkels suit me just fine.

So, fast forward a few years, and I’ve gone off the deep end on Merkels, Sauer’s Steyrs. You are correct in that its hard to find good “dope” on these rifles. I haunted gun shops in the greater Houston, Texas, and googled innumerable web sites trying to nail down good info. Finally saw one one day when I met a young man who evidently was a trust fund baby. I met him at Briley’s to buy a Cooper he received as a graduation present. He sold it to me quick and fast as he needed another $1,250 to buy the Perazzi shotgun he wanted.
Briley’s let me fondle the little jewel, but their price was above what I was willing to pay. It took me about 3 years to find the 7-08 Jagd Stutzen on GunBroker. I’ve just fell into the others over the last few years.

So here we go.

I’ve owned four. Two Jagd Stutzens (full stock single shot carbine). One K1 in 7mm-08, the other, a K3 in 308 Win. The K1’s are set up for the Recknagel twist mounts. The K3’s are set up with mounts similar to the Blazer saddle mounts. I prefer the mounts on the K1 for quickness on and off. Both return to zero every time. With the first K1 I ran into a gun rep that gave me the Americase for the 7-08 K1.






I got lucky as the K3 in 308 came with both the Americase and a Skinner Sights ballistic nylon carry bag. Makes for a sweet package. Will fit in the tour pack of a Harley or on the back of a four wheeler.



When I carry the Merkels, I usually hunt with a Eberlestock H2O gunrunner, and the Merkel sheathed.


The two half stocks were both K1’s, being a 300 Win Mag, and a 9.3 x 74R.
I sold the 300 Win. Mag as it was a bit much in this rifle.



The Jagd Stutzens are my favorite.



Light, diminuitve, accurate with 3 way selectable trigger on the left side a the top of the Trigger guard. IIRC, 2.9 lbs., 2.3 lbs, and 2.1 lbs. Safety is on the tang and has to be pushed forward to activate the trigger.



But they are no toy and do not feel like one in the hand. They lock up like a bank vault. If you ever get the fat part of your palm between your thumb and index finger caught upon closure, you will see what I mean.