Frohn, Adolph-Suhl

By Larry B. Schuknecht

Adolph or Ad. Frohn is not remembered for making popular hunting guns. His clients were not generally sportsmen and hunters. While he could have and at some point probably did produce a few sporting guns, he specialized in precision rifles for match shooting. But he is best known for a Match rifle cartridge which many believe, he had a hand in developing and that carries his name to this day. While that cartridge, the 8.15 x 46.5R Frohn was most popular as a target round it also gained universal use as a sporting round with similarities to our 32-40 Marlin- Ballard which was also both a match and hunting round. Some authorities now state that there are articles in a German periodical “Deutschen Schützen- und Wehr” from circa 1894 which disputes the claim that he developed the round but they have not made that information available and I personally believe that he probably had his own variation of the cartridge (of which there are at least 5) which he used in his popular rifles. In my mind his association to a very popular hunting cartridge warrants a review of his life and career on this web site.

Adolph Friedrich Theodor Frohn was born in 1839 and the June 5th, 1905 issue of Der Waffenhandler contains a notice that he had passed away in Suhl at the age of 66. Volume 1 of the Handbuch der Leistungsfähigkeit der Gesammteh Industrie of 1873 states that the founded his business in 1862 and at the time that the handbook was published he employed 30 workers.

On July 10, 1868 it was officially recorded and registered by the government that the firm of Cristoph Grüber & Co. in Suhl ( located at Stadelstraße 20), a registered general partnership owned by Cristoph Grüber Senior and the widow Justine Elisabeth Grüber (Born Schilling) was dissolved and deleted and that the rifle maker Adolph Friedrich Theodor Frohn was recorded as a sole proprietor, taking over the Company officially on that date. The Grüber firm was founded in 1842.

Adolph was a very active target shooter and a Honorary Marksman for 20 years (1873-1893) in the Privileged Shooting Guild in Suhl. He specialized in the production of Target Rifles and Handguns.

When Adolph passed away his son-in-law Adolph Reinhäckel (1865-1920) took over the operation of the business. After he passed away, it continued until 1927 under the direction of his widow and children until about 1927.

In the 1880 edition of U.Hugo’s edition of the Jagd Zietung we found an advertiesment for an apparatus for melting lead and casting bullets manufactured by Ad. Frohn.

In the July 1884 issue of the Waffenschmied- Munich we found an advertisement for stock making for hunting and deluxe guns, and target rifles on the Mauser and falling block rifle actions.

The following advertisement is from the 1912 issue of the periodical Schuss und Waffe. It is interesting to note that besides Target guns they advertised Pirschbüchsen or hunting rifles.

The following advertisement was found in the May 1921 issue of the Deutsche Förster.

Adolph was not only a gun maker but also an inventor. No know German patents (D.R.P.’s) are known to have been issued to him but he had quite a few Deutsches Reichs Gebrauchs-Muster’s (D.R.G.M.’s).

His earliest rifle action evidently was not protected and we find it in the July 1882 Waffenschmied-Suhl. Following is his adaptation of the then popular Martini action.

D. R. G. M.’s issued to the Ad. Frohn firm after his death are-

no. 277 241 (7.5.1906)

no. 429 442 (16.7.1910) for a tip up self cocking target pistol with a coil spring.

no. 501 407 (13.3.1912)

no. 541 635 ( 11.2.1913)

no. 560 239 for a Diopter Sight base and no. 560 240 for the Diopter Sight that fits the base. The following image of the rear sight on a Frohn Stabil rifle is from Vol. 2 of Alte Scheibenwaffen and is courtesy of Mr. Tom Rowe.

no. 588 141 for the Frohn System Stabil.

Three rifle actions built on the Frohn designs are the Model 1903, Model 1906 and the Frohn System Stabil.

The following images are from vol. 2 of Alte Scheibenwaffen and are courtesy of Mr. Tom Rowe. the first is a rifle with the System Frohn 1903.

The next is a rifle built on the System Frohn 1906

The next is a rifle built on the Systen Frohn Stabil.