In what was maybe the proudest business transaction of his career, he received Juan Carlos de Borbon, King of Spain, in his showroom. Ludwig Borovnik IV assumed leadership of the business in 1986. A great many hunting trips to Yugoslavia were organized, facilitated by Ludwig Borovnik III’s excellent relations with Marshal Josep Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia from the end of World War II until 1980. Their relationship blossomed into a friendship and business partnership that would last 25 years. In 1960, Ludwig Borovnik III first met passionate hunter Helmut Horten and his wife Heidi. Much of the finest examples of the wood found their way to his gun shop as well. Having got the business off to a good start, he was the first wood-seller in Ferlach to start trading stock wood and rose to become one of Europe’s largest walnut wood traders. In the 1950s, Ludwig Borovnik III made use of his language skills to import and sell timber from Yugoslavia. Ludwig Borovnik III, who had been born in 1925, assumed the role of head of the family and rebuilt the business from scratch. Just a few years later, Ludwig Borovnik II died of ill health that had never improved since his return from Germany. After the end of the war, the family returned to Carinthia and found it in ruins. On Apthe family fortunes were undone when all members of the family were deported to Germany on cattle wagons by German authorities. The company that he founded was later taken over by his son, Ludwig Borovnik II it remained a small, family-run enterprise well into the 1930s. Herr Ludwig Borovnik, who was born in 1824 and the mayor of Ferlach, turned his passion into a career and set up business as an independent gunsmith in Ferlach, Austria in 1848. This is the story of one of them and a unique firearm he produced. About a dozen gun-making companies there craft some of the finest shotguns and rifles in the world.

In the very southernmost valley of Austria is located the town of Ferlach.

Ferlach, Austria - A Cradle of Gun-making

Ww Greener Shotguns Serial Numbers