I am quite confident that most Hunters didn't have calibers, dials, etc. & had no idea of sluggin' the bore, etc. and were more involved with smokin' their pipe & yodeling....
So who exactly was bridging the gap on all these minute differences between kalibres and keeping it all sane? The Country Gunsmith - Firearms Merchant?
Lep Pozdrav,
Raimey
rse
In blackpowder times, many German hunters reloaded their cartridges. Components and loading tools were listed in catalogs (e.g. Burgsmüller, Stuckenbrock) and available by mail order. These reloaders must have had a good idea what they were doing.
The other shooters depended on the local gunsmith/merchant, who also may have reloaded cartridges.
Note that the early ammo companies such as Utendoerffer in Germany or G. Roth in Austria also offered cases and bullets for reloading.
That gunsmith also sold new guns, most of them were sourced from outside: cheap stuff from Belgium, better grades from Suhl / Zella Mehlis in Germany, from Ferlach in Austria.
At the same time, those firearm manufacturers in Suhl or whereever tried to secure their business by chambering proprietory cartridges. The Brits did just the same.
There obviously was a lot of confusion, but with black powder and lead bullets the consequences of chambering the wrong cartridge were probably not too bad.
This changed of course with nitro powders and jacketed bullets. The need for standardisation became obvious. Reloading the new high-pressure cartridges was definity tricky, and sometime around WWI ammo companies such as RWS (formerly Utendoerffer) or DWM did a good marketing job by convincing hunters that they should buy loaded ammo only.
Reloading was still done for the 8,15x46R and the old BP cartridges, but that all faded away by or after WWII.
Reloading as we know it today was re-introduced in Germany after WWII by the Americans
Note added:
I have just read that CIP was founded in 1914.
https://www.cip-bobp.org/en/cipSo there is reason to hope that in your specific case (6,5x70R, gun from the 1920s, ammo from ??) dimensions etc of German vs. Austrian ammo have been aligned
