Grainger2,
I lived in Wuerzburg during the time you were stationed in Augsburg, and I agree with you about the whole area, but I would add the food along with the beer. During my first tour (71-73) I attended the Facilities Engineer Management Course, 6weeks TDY, in Ober Ommergau(?) and that is one of my favorite areas in the whole world. Assuming the dimensions you cite are from a chamber cast and are, therefore larger than the cartridge, my guess is that 9.3x74R cases would be the best bet. They would be much easier than trying to size 45 basic cases (or 45-120) and they would likely be easier to find than the 45s as well. I suggest you take a look at Stanton Hillis' thread on Annealing brass in the DoubleGuns BBS@doublegunshop.com in this site. It is the first forum here and the thread is not too old. Also, I find the website MUNICION.ORG-Codigos D.W.M. very handy when trying to ID a cartridge. The site is in Spanish, but can be converted to English, if necessary. Numbers are numbers anyway and this site has drawings of all the old cartridges. They have updated the site, but I find it easier to go to "old.municion.org" by clicking on the bar at the top of the page. I think Hornaday makes 9.3x74R cases, as well as Norma, S+B, and RWS. If you can't find any, PM me and maybe I can make some suggestions. Germans did use paper patched bullets, but they were not very common. Swaged bullets were more common. If you use 9.3x74R cases and have access to a 410 single barrel shotgun, Stanton Hillis' fireforming procedure, using shot for the final forming load should save you time.
Good luck.
Mike
