Not a tinnie but a shooting badge?

[ValhallaMilitaria]

This is a new one for me and the catch makes me say repro but the rest of it looks good? anyone here seen these or handled them? I am putting it in my modest collection, I think its pretty neat!
Thanks for your input
Eric

[Wood]

Genuine badge (and pin), but they rarely seem to keep their finish. THe colour of the pin/pin plate will tell you what grade it is. (looks bronze on my monitor)
Regards,
Pete

[Don Scowen]

A lovely piece Erich.

Pete is correct on a couple of points, yes a genuine badge with the original pin & plate & yes the finish is often lost because of the zinc base.

However contrary to popular opinion these were only ever gold grade, some dealers try to convince collectors that they were found in bronze & silver as well which is incorrect (some have even painted them with a bronze colour paint to try & prove this!). This is probably due to the fact that all of the other Tiroler shooting badges come in bronze, silver, gold & gold with oakleaves.

These are a Meisterschütze for combination shooting, awarded at the annual National Shoot (Landesschießen) held in Innsbruck Austria. To receive one, the shooter had to first be awarded the gold with oakleave grade badge in three disciplines, Pistol, KK-Gewehr & Wehrmann, see this link for some http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ndesschie%DFen .

I can tell you by looking at the number on the reverse of the badges that this is one of the unissued/un-awarded peices that were released onto the market a number of years ago. These were all found when the old shooting hall was being demolished. However, it is still a nice original piece.

Cheers
Don

[ValhallaMilitaria]

Don and Pete,
Thanks for the replies and the info, the seller had had it for around 20 or so years, it looked fake to me at first with that pinback but then I took another look...I am glad I did and I am going to keep it.
Again,
Thanks so much for the education,
Best,
Eric