Christoph TavernaroHunting and weapons expert
Mountains, forests and rivers have long been the basic requirement for a weaponsmith to settle locally. Swords, lances and protectivearmor could only be made if there was enough ore in the mountains for metal production. If the surrounding forests had enough wood to produce charcoal and the power of the rivers could drive the heavy forging hammers.
Custom made deerskin weapon and case by Gerd Hauptmann.
For a long time, therefore, cities such as Ferlach in Austria, Suhl in the Thuringian Forest or Gardone Val Trompia were the epicenters of weapons production. But the greattime of the gunsmiths and the gunsmiths who developed from them has long beenthe field of modern hunting and sporting weapons have long been dominated by largeand sporting weapons have long since been dominated by large corporations that can manufacture countless weapons a day using robots.
But far from the “main stream” they still exist, the craftsmen who can make a weapon completely by hand from just a block of steel and a piece of wood with their handiwork alone.
Several thousand hours of pure manual labor are often put into a handmadehunting weapon. In the beginning, the customer has an idea, a wish or a vision. Now the task is to process these ideas and to design and calculate a rifle that combines the customer’s wishes with what is technically possible.The system, the actual heart, is milled and filed from a forged blank completely out of solid material, then the barrel is drilled, honed and hammered. The lock, the interplay of springs, trigger and firing pin, which must be made and constructed as intricately and as precisely as a Swiss watch movement, is completely machined out of the solid material with a file. Then the stock is made fromfrom a more than one hundred year old walnut tree exactly to the customer’sthe customer’s measurements, like a made-to-measure suit, before the engraver uses a small hammer and his burin to apply the ornamentation for theornamentation.
These processes are very lengthy and it often takes several years for such a masterpiece to reach its new owner. There are just under 40 gunsmithing businesses left in the German-speaking world and less than 100 in Europe. Companies in which on the one hand drawing and designing and on the other hand at the workbench is filed, drilled and soldered. But again, far away from the “main stream” there are people who want to hold a noble weapon in their hands for hunting, which has been made according to their ideas by a master hand and has not fallen out of a CNC machine.
Christoph Tavernaro is the expert in German-speaking countries for the trade and brokerage of handmade luxury weapons. Whether it’s the elegant tilt-barrel rifle from Ferlach for hunting in the mountains, the heavier English double rifle for hunting dangerous game in Africa, or an Italian shotgun with a matching custom stock for shooting range or airborne game hunting. It does not matter whether new or used, with him everyone will find what he is looking for.
Hunting and weapons determine his life, so it’s no wonder that he attends university a second time in his early 40s and studies hunting management at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna.University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences” in Vienna and graduated as “Akademischer Jagdwirt”, and that he also completed a professional shooting instructor training inEngland (CPSA) and Germany (DSB).
He has many guns made exactly to customer specifications and oversees the manufacturing process from stock wood selection, to engraving, to the finished gun. Markus Meindl and Christoph Tavernaro are friends, their passion for hunting brought them together, and very quickly they realized that they share the same values.that unite them. It is the respect for nature, sustainability and the realization that true luxury and wealth has nothing to do with money, but ratherbut comes from living values and friends.
That a piece of venison is the best and probably the most organic food that can be consumed. And that, after the deer has been shot, the hide is of course alsothe hide is further processed as leather. No wonder, then, that long joint discussions result in products from Meindl that are specially adapted to the needs of hunting. But it is not only the sure-footed shoes or the classic leather pants, no, it is often many small and useful accessories that are created in such conversations.
