doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com My First Drilling - Questions

I know some of you on this board are really knowledgeable on Drillings, and I just bought my first, and I would like a little help on figuring out what I got.

I would like to know anything about the builder and especially about the rifle caliber. I know it is in the 8mm category, but that is as far as I can get without plugging the chamber with "Cerrosafe", which I'll have to buy at $28.00 + shipping, from Brownell's. So, I thought someone might know, from the markings on the flats, what caliber it should be. I have taken some pics that follow.













Thanks
binko

Binko:

I can't tell without a pic of the top tang, but it looks similar to a Treff, Collath or Meffert underlever or Roux breech. It has 65mm choked 16 bore scattergun pattern welded tubes with some variant of the 360 BPE allowed in the rifle chamber, which looks to be cast steel. The 118/35 means the 108/49 - 0.350" plug gauge wouldn't enter and the 0.340" plug would pass the whole length. Without a chamber cast, I would venture a guess of 360 2 1/4" Express(9.3X57) or 9.3X72R.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I failed to answer your other question of maker and note that the drilling looks to have a Bavarian cheekpiece. Hans Lechner, I think, was better known for his Buchel Scheibenwaffen or target arms from Nurnberg( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg ), which was a focal center for trading since at least the time of the Roman Empire. Hans Lechner was active in the Bundesfest and placed 4th for the stand target in July 15-22 of 1906 in Munich. Target arms with his name atop the rib date to the beginning of WWI. After the war the name Georg Lechner of Nurnberg appears atop the rib of target arms sometimes with Franz Ernst as Inh. or Inhaber or proprietor. So Hans and Franz might have been in a business or Franz picked up the pieces after WWII with Georg's talent.

Also I didn't note in the first post but the marks are black powder marks possibly from the 1890s. Could you shed a little more light on the marks on the rifle?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

binko, that is some of my favorite damascus.

Tim

Raimey,

I took a pic of the tang but I didn't include it in the collage...I must be loosing it, sorry, here it is.



I'll try to get a better shot on the rifle marks and post those, but I can tell you that an 8mm bullet won't slide into the muzzle of the rifle, and a measurement with my dial calipers at the muzzle shows, 3.17", which is a little less that the standard 8mm reading of 3.23".

Tim,

Thanks, I don't know much about the different Damascus patterns, but Drew says it is a Bernard, [French], pattern, and yes, it is quite attractive. Hopefully, I'll learn a lot more than I know about Damascus barrels through reading and studying the posts by Drew and others on this board. I think they are amazing and plan to own more than I have now.

binko

Nice gun, Binko.

Isn't that the measurement of the older 8mm cal, like a J bore?
Not sure what I am talking about, but I like the gun!

Silver,

I think you are right, but I really don't know for sure. I have heard this from a few people, but I thought I would ask the experts here. Maybe we'll find out?

thanks
binko

binko:

For sure it is a Treff action by the name and D.R.G.M. on the top tang. A block of steel with milled slots for the hammers, which are powered by coil springs is attached, to the top tang by the screw behing the indicators. Also the location of the cocking indicators, which are vertically spring loaded, give it away. Sometimes the indicators are in the front and sometimes in the rear. The D.R.G.M. number might aide in narrowing the date of manufacture. But if the bore is near 8mm, I would still ventures a guess along the lines of the 360 Express like 8X72R, 8X72 Sauer, etc. and something interesting. It could be a military variant, but with that type action the rifle calibre more than likely won't fall along the normal lines. Treff actions occassionally draw the eye of some collectors. If I were you, I'd use wax, but some prefer a better cast.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Come to think of it, I bet my hat, not my good hat, on it being 8X57R-360. That just may be what it is. If the D.R.G.M. number is 71331, it could narrow the date to with 6 years, or the length of protection time for a unique innovation. D.R.G.M. #62088 was issued on July 13,1896, so I assume an additional 10k or so would be issued over the next couple years. Most of the D.R.G.M.s were lost during the wars and the info available is quite small.

Something is amiss and is beginning to puzzle me. Info 2nd or 3rd hand from the Suhl proofhouse(I'm just guessing it went through there) notes that the 118/35 was a designation for a 9.3mm bullet used up until circa 1910. And you say that an 8mm round won't fit in? Is there a "crown" over "R" on the rifle tube somewhere? The pre-rifling diameter was near 0.341" and you measured 0.317"??

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse