Merkel Helix RX: The in-line movement is gaining favor in rifles rifles lending itself to shooting on moving game as well as in the long-range stop: with the latest generation optics you have a formidable set for these needs and the results are satisfying .
di Emmanuel Tabasso
A couple of years ago Merkel presented its new creation in the field of rifled barrel at the IWA in Nuremberg: the model Helix RX. The famous House of Suhl still maintains a wide range of long barrels on the list, ranging from small-caliber side-by-side shotguns to mixed rifles dear to the Central European tradition, to rifles of various kinds, with manual or semi-automatic repetition. The fashions and ways of hunting change over time and the advancement of the German push hunting system has created new needs in the gunsmithing field: this practice, which arose for functional, choreographic and aggregation reasons, almost immediately banned the use of rifled semiauto, considered not very sporty, favoring the long gun with manual repetition. Realizing how a traditional swiveling and sliding movement makes it possible to repeat shots with less speed and with greater deviation of the tappet from the target, we thought of something else. The military mechanics of Steyr and Schmidt Rubin with in-line movement and born at the end of the nineteenth century have been revised, passing to unusual systems such as the Blaser with closures derived from non-gun applications, or borrowed from their semi-auto like Browning.
Merkel has created a combination of tradition and novelty with peculiar qualities.
The fixed points in the design of the weapon see the versatility, the decomposability and therefore the easy transport, the ballistic yield and the themes have been carried out in the following way. There is a quick barrel / caliber change system and a bolt with a head that can be separated from the slide and is equipped with a multiple-wing closure directly in the mortises milled in the breech of the barrel itself. Three different heads are sized for as many groups of calibers so as to cover, with proportionally reduced costs, the range of prey to which we intend to dedicate ourselves. The advantage reverberates on the ease of transport: with three rods and as many heads you can range from marmot to roe deer, from deer to buffalo and, if desired, the number of heads can be reduced to two, perhaps playing a little more on the rods. If the first two elements involved are easy to verify, the ballistic performance requires a field test: we have thus experienced tests in the shooting range and on the hunting ground, in first person or assisted by friends of proven ability who, with us, have been able to probe the prerogatives of this rifle on which, we emphasize, the company Bignami SpA of Ora / Auer (BZ) has mounted the latest Zeiss telescope on the market, the spearhead of the prestigious company from Wetzlar, the model Victory V8 1,8-14 × 50.
{besps} hunting-gallery-photo / merkel-zeiss {/ besps}
A few technical notes:
The castle is made by a milling cutter from a block of light alloy and in its closed form the bolt carriage slides safely and without interfering with the eye of the shooter who does not have a moving entity in the foreground. The shutter construction envisages a rear carriage and a rotating front head joined by means of a longitudinal extension; the seal with six wings (there are seven, but one does not enter the closing game) takes place directly in the breech of the barrel where the mortises are made, therefore the greater effort is borne by these two entities leaving the castle less work. The retraction of the carriage by means of the external handlebar, of beautiful design and practical functionality, brings into play a cam track and a peg, forcing the head to rotate, freeing itself from the seats. From the end of the stroke it starts forwards chambering a new cartridge: note how a shaped steel plate occludes the ejection window with the bolt closed to prevent the entry of foreign materials. Now we come to the reason for so much speed of action: a rack system with a ratio of 1: 2 is mounted inside, so that the long movement of the shutter actually involves half the path of the handlebar. A refined solution, typical of a brand that has always brought important technical innovations to the market. As for the trigger, we see the use of the battery to be mounted manually using the button, now usual, placed on the codetta of the castle and equipped with a locking spring button. Interesting is the double joint solution which, in a very short stroke, discharges the energy needed to ignite the trigger on the firing pin.
On the hunting ground:
Our friend Alberto knows a lot about ball hunting, especially the ungulates of the alpine fauna and therefore we have put this rifle and optics combination in his hands, confident of a thoughtful examination. Let's review the sequence of use together: the battery is armed after which the shutter can be activated by chambering the first of the cartridges previously inserted in the practical detachable tank. Wanting to start the march, press the button and send the button back: the battery is thus disarmed, but a simple forward pressure allows you to fire. Obviously the battery remains armed at each repetition of the shot if no action is taken to deactivate it. Two practical notes: the closed gun can have the cartridge in the chamber and to check it the battery must be activated and equally when the first cartridge is chambered it is done with the battery armed and without other forms of safety, but there is nevertheless the block against premature shooting. A little mental and manual training together with the usual rule of NEVER pointing the weapon at sensitive entities avoids trouble.
The test takes place in two different days because in the first the evident passage of a pack of wolves has moved the animals pushing them into hidden areas, not very accessible and above all leaving them highly suspicious and agitated. In the second there is already snow starting from 1800 m of altitude: the morning sighting of a doe requires a very cautious approach, in favor of the wind and taking advantage of the few shelters offered by the area. However, the job is not improvised and good skills lead to position oneself for a wide comfort shot just above 150 m: in similar situations it is really an unusual occurrence. The kneeling position with backpack on a rock and the rifle firmly in place allow you to frame in the optics the silhouette that stands out clearly in the HT lenses: given the very short distance, the magnification is brought to 10x then improvised with the alpenstocks a support for the right elbow for a further certainty of stability, finally activating the silent cocking slide. It is the moment of perfecting posture and breathing, then the finger presses the direct click brought, in complete tranquility, to 900 g. The outcome of 7 Rem. Mag. Leaves no room for doubts and the shape of the stock together with the wide field of vision, allow you to keep the area served in the shot under control: according to good habits the rearmament is in any case immediate and the hunter appreciates the instinctive and rapid maneuver of the handlebar very close to the hand and close to the side of the castle so that in the port it never creates discomfort. The weight of the doe will be 104 kg: a result of respect for what the German manufacturer already calls the rifle for the third millennium.