Developed in the late 1800s, the core systems of this rifle were conceived by Karel Krnka, a second-generation gunsmith (his father, Sylvester Krnka, was a known maker of breechloading rifle conversions) as well as an Austrian Army officer and an engineer working with both the Gatling Works in Birmingham and G. Roth's firm. Among other work at Roth, Krnka was a major contributor to the Roth-Steyr Model 1907 semi-automatic pistol. The heart of the rifle is a long recoil action, with the barrel and bolt reciprocating within a near full length housing and the receiver and a non-reciprocating charging handle on the left side. Feed is via an internal magazine loaded via a quick release floorplate with the magazine appearing wide enough for double-stack loading. This particular example is outfitted as a fine sporting rifle, and advertisements of the era touted it as the first of its kind on the market, with a price to match; period adverts for Haenel's American agent, A.H. Funke, list the "Haenel Automatic" at $150 (about $4.5k when inflation adjusted to 2018), triple the price of one of Haenel's fine bolt action guns. Raised German silver blade front and two leaf notch rear sights, with "45" present on some components, a metal charging handle with ribbed horn border, "crown" and "crown/N" proofs on top of the receiver, and "C.G. Haenel, Suhl./System G. Roth D.R. Patent No 116061 & 118602" on the left side. A safety switch is installed on the upper tang, with the trigger guard and floorplate decorated with fine scroll engraving. The stock is full length, with a horn forearm tip, light engraving on the escutcheons, sling swivels, checkered pistol grip with a horn cap, raised shadow-line cheekpiece and a serrated horn buttplate.

Fine, with 70% of the original blue finish, showing scattered spotting along with areas of brown and gray patina, mild edge wear and light handling marks. The recheckered stock is very good, with some light chips around the tangs and magazine well, a crack at the toe of the buttstock, roughness and cracking of the horn components, and scattered dents, particularly on the cheekpiece. Mechanically excellent. A very rare early semi-automatic sporting arm, both physically attractive and mechanically interesting.