Venuswaffenwerk Zella-Mehlis Mod. Tell Nr. 1708

[Absolut]

This is an air training rifle that resembles the Gew98 - not only by the rear sight, but also by the sling swivels and sling configuration. The rear swivel position may even be changed from in front of the trigger guard to the base at the rear. Not fully sure on how it works, but you can take out the brass barrel. I think it was filled with lead balls from bottom and feeds them automatically. Seems the internal assembly number of it was 321 since this is not only stamped on the barrel assembly, but also on the inside of the trigger guard (and I'd almost bet if I pulled it from the stock also to some other parts). The serial number of the rifle itself, being 1520 and stamped right behind the trigger guard, is typical Venuswaffenwerk fashion, a detail they carried over to the Mars 115 rifles, which anyway seems to be the ancestor to this model. Design improvements and adoption to the K98k design.

I have absolutely no idea to which period these date, but based on the tangent rear sight it should be a rather very early air rifle, in my opinion therefore somewhen 1920-1930. This model is unfortunately also not covered in the book of Simpson, so maybe posting it here makes it a good future reference too.

 

[flynaked]

Very cool Georg, I’ve seen one in a catalog, I’ll dig through them when I get home and see if I can find it.

 

[Absolut]

That would be great because this would allow dating the rifle.

 

[biggymu]

That’s in amazing condition! Beautiful!

 

[WreckTangle]

Do you know the maker? I bet you’re right 1920-1930ish, reason is after WW1 the Versailles treaty limited the Germans to a fixed number of “military” weapons. Don’t quote me but I believe it was 100k… anyways when the DSM came out in 1934, the Germans called it the German Sports Model and instead of the manufacturers selling direct the rifles would go to resellers where then the Germans military would purchase the rifles, basically a loophole.

Taking this into account it makes sense for figuring a general timeframe, again 1920-1930ish.

Have you shot it? Probably is a spring loaded…?

Sorry for grammar typing on my iPhone

 

[Absolut]

Do you know the maker?

Yes. Venuswaffenwerk Zella-Mehlis. As it is inscribed on the receiver and named in the thread title .

Have you shot it? Probably is a spring loaded…?

No, just recently bought it, had not had time yet. Also would need to find out correct caliber first (4.4 or 4.5mm or even something else...?). It works exactly the same way as does the later Mars 115 model of the same manufacturer.

 

[biggymu]

I noticed this is also inscribed (Germany) on the receiver. Is this an export version?

 

[Absolut]

I noticed this is also inscribed (Germany) on the receiver. Is this an export version?

It is the excactly the same stamp as on Mars 115 rifle.

 

[Mauserken]

Georg the attached link has an early Tell and Mars Luftwaffen catalog. The model 71 seems very close to yours. That forum also had two old listings of your exact Tell 1708 for sale. If Clay has a late 20’s catalog, he may be able to find an original Tell advertisement for your model.
Regards,
Ken

Tell (and Mars) catalogue (mid-late 1930s German)

Tell (and Mars) catalogue (mid-late 1930s German) With thanks to Dan for these scans.

forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com

 

[Mauserken]

Here is another site of some help:

Luftgewehr Modell Tell, Nr. 1708 - Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de

 

[flynaked]

Ken, I had no luck in the catalogs. I know I saw it, or something extremely close in one as it stuck out to me, but it must have been elsewhere.

 

[Absolut]

The model 71 seems very close to yours.

You're right, it indeed looks to be the same, except for the rear sight. Interestingly it also says that what is in that catalogue named "Mars 71" was former "Tell 71" model. I also found this there:
https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/tell/tell-catalogue-a-eckert-1931/ Note that this price list names model 1707 and 1709 (among others in that "model number range"), so maybe it was also around this period? Maybe the 1708 was a military model only and therefore never appeared officially in any catalogue?

 

[mauser22]

Way cool and oober rare gun! We found evidence at Suhl Archive that Venus probably supplied the bands and other small parts to numerous DSM34 producers. Brother Steve know much on this perhaps will chime in.

 

[Swissair]

Late to the party but just joined the forum. I have a Mars 115 and although the calibre is 4.4mm, the regular 4.5mm steel BBs you can buy are actually undersized. Not only can I shoot the supposed 4.5mm steel BBs from my Mars without any problem, they will also simply roll down the barrel if I loosen off the spring-loaded BB that usually prevents that when using the gun. Saved me a lot of searching for 4.4mm BBs!