Hy Hunter Zouave

[springfield art]

Older members will recall the Hy Hunter firearms marketed in the early 60's; I was at a big gun show this weekend and saw for sale a typical Zouave rifle, apparently unfired, but marked on barrel & lockplate, with Hy Hunter's name! This took me back a few decades, and also shows how the good ol' Zouave repro (of the Remington rifle that never got accepted or issued) has been around as long as many of us older muzzle-fans.

 

[tenngun]

Is this one of the short barreled ones?

 

[64Springer]

There are stories of brazed breeches coming loose. Internet gossip? Who knows. Many say the breeches are welded and perfectly fine.

The HY Hunters I've seen have walnut stocks. Big plus in my book. They tend to go for 150-200 more than Zolis.

 

[rodinal220]

I have one. Haven't fired it, got it really cheap. The story goes that the early manufactured ones had the bolsters brazed on and some "may" have failed. Later manufactured ones had a "W" stamped on them (bolster) and are considered GTG.

Nobody seems to know for sure about these as to who made the early barrels. The N-SSA approved arms list is silent on them, but others claim N-SSA bans them.

https://www.n-ssa.net/vbforum/showthread.php/4271-Hy-Hunter-Zouave
https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...2e0025ee847d4094b90/1640874720641/SAC2022.pdf

 

[dave951]

The N-SSA doesn't say much about who made the barrels but if you get inspected and are found with one of the brazed bolster barrels, you'll be politely requested to leave the line and don't bring that barrel back.

It is NOT internet gossip about failures of brazed bolsters. If anybody is ever going to see a gun fail, it's probably a N-SSA shooter since we shoot more in one year than the average person does in 10+years. Yes, failed brazed bolsters have been observed in the N-SSA and that's why they're banned from competition.

 

[vintovka]

I had a nice Zoli Zouve. Pretty good wood to metal and nice bore, Shot ok with both minies and ball. When i tried to sell it I wound up with no takers for over a year and was asking under going price at time. I added a repop sword bayonet and it sold overnite!

 

[springfield art]

Is this one of the short barreled ones?

BTW, a Zoli Zouave sold at auction near me recently, appeared nearly unfired, for 400 plus 6% sales tax plus about 20% auction fee so it went for about 500 total. The Hy Hunter Zouave I mentioned that was at a large gun show recently had a tag at 500, but usually sellers will come down a bit. The Hy Hunter appeared unfired. Maybe many people got them back in the day as wall-hangers and never actually used them.

 

[kelljp]

I have one and it shots mini balls just fine, never had any issues. Use 80 grains of FFG. Been shooting it for last 3 years.