UBB.threads Forums General Militaria Historic and Period Firearms Forum Heym German Police Carbine

Gentlemen,

We have not talked about longarms lately.

I picked up a rather obscure postwar German Police carbine the other day that I thought I would show. It is an 8mm rifle made specifically for the West German Police by F.W. Heym that is called the Model 52 by some authorities. These seem to have been mis-identified in the past as reworked wartime Mauser Model 98 but more recent information indicates they were newly manufactured rifles made for the police by Heym between 1952 and 1960 as allowed by the Allied Occupation authorities. Heym also made a civilian/commercial version of this style carbine in .22 caliber as a training rifle with a different receiver of course.

These carbines were manufactured for several police agencies and most have factory markings on the receiver that indicate the specific law enforcement agency they were produced for. This carbine is one of 80 manufactured in 1960 for the Hesse Justizverwaltung (Hessian Prison Police) and it is so marked on the receiver and dated on the barrel. These 8mm versions have a bad reputation for supposedly having a weak chamber or receiver but I have seen no period proof of that pronouncement found in some early literature that also states these were made of reworked M98 parts. That statement seems to have been proven incorrect. The receiver and the barrel are both Nitro proofed on this carbine along with the other expected West German proofs.

Heym was a manufacturer of high grade hunting rifles in Suhl prior to the war and fled to West Germany after Suhl was occupied by the Soviets. They set up works in West Germany and continued to make firearms after circa 1952 when they were allowed to make these carbines. I would be interested in any further information that anyone might have on these M52 police carbines as I have exhausted my on line sources.