Writing to the past owner of your Swiss rifle?

[SBF]

Has anyone written to the owner of their Swiss rifle? I'm interested in doing so, I think it would be fascinating. Just wondering about how to address it? I know the tag has the city and canton (state?) but what about a actual home address? If I am correct in my research of the tag, the month, day,year is the previous owners birthday, I originally thought it was the manufacturer date of the rifle. According to the one the tag I have (see other post in this subforum) the soldier should be in his mid 60's.

Lastly, would the person in Switzerland even be able to read a letter that you write to them in English?

Sorry for all the questions, just thought it would be neat to do so and get more info for a scrapbook on the firearm, for me it's more about the history than the shooting, but that's fun too!:)

[sfc ret]

you might want to do a search on this forum.......I remember reading a thread about how to go about writing to the address, the moderator (stefan) is swiss and can translate the tag in the thread for you...even if the original owner isn't alive, houses in switerland as well as in most of europe get passed down within the family........europe isn't like America, folks tend to pass on ther houses to family.....it isn't uncommon to have several generations of the family to keep the house....it's very rare that a house goes up for sale on the market.....at least that is the way it was in Germany when i was stationed there both times.

as for reading english.......english is a mandatory language in school, (it is in germany)....wouldn't surprise me if it isn't in switerland either......after all english is the language of business.....if there are any kids, or young adults around I'm sure they would be able to read it.

http://pub125.ezboard.com/fcollectorguns35625frm1

[SBF]

Thanks for the info, it is appreciated.