Back to the >>Express Barrels<<, their proof & export from Belgium and importation into Germany, it seems that the tube/barrel is what MUST be >>Express<< Proofed. So, in my mind and as in the beginning, there were just a handful of cartridges and taking a literary license, the proof effort was more closely connected to the diameter of the tube rather than the cartridge. And considering that there were just a select few of >>Express Cartridge<< that their proof too was based on tube diameter rather than actual cartage, as in the muzzle-loader realm/process but Bullet weight dependent. As I said, Germany hastily cobbled together a set of Prof Rules morphed into Law, being a copy of British, French & Belgian rules and then sharpened it and poked Belgium in the eye every chance they got. Regarding Powder, Germany considered Bigger Grain to be Better and demanded that Belgium, and its finer grain powder, step up to the plate with larger grain. But Otto Maretsch said Germany's Large Grain Powder was probably lower pressure than that of Belgium's finer grain and much of the German Larger Grain Powder wasn't being converted and was blowing out the end, resulting in just Big Talk, Big Noise and little substance. Too, the reason Germany was chomping @ the Bit to have Proof Law as they were about to be kicked to the curb by those countries that DID have Proof Law, and Germany did not want to lose that business, so the Suhl mechanics were the driving force.

Anyway, after several updates of the Belgian Proof Rules, and in order for Belgium to get their wares into Germany, which was a huge market & coveted in Germany, Belgium had to adopt German Proof Tables to achieve this. Remember that Germany did not make any tubes/barrels at this time but rather imported rough bored tubes from Liége. And considering from the >>Express Barrel<< Proof Table, a 9,14mm diameter tubes was proofed with the following considerations:

99,7(Gauge) 9.14(mm-Bore) 0.360"(Bore Diameter) 9,75 (grammes(1st Proof)) 11,2(grammes(Bullet)) 6,5(grammes(2nd Proof))
with the same 11,2 gramme bulet

Service Load - 3,25 Grammes of Powder with 8,4 Gramme Bullet

So this data is what a 9,14 mm diameter >>Express Rifled<<Tube was pass proof for a 8,4 gramme bullet. And an >>Express Rifled Barrel<< would not be imported into German without this Belgian Proof Text. I have not idea what bullet weight a 9,3X47R centres around, but I don't think it matter as long as the tube was blanket >>Express<< Proofed in the 99.7 Gauge realm. More than likely all 9mm kaliber barrels(rifled of course) destined for Germany were subject to this blanket proof. One set of proof data for all 9,14 mm Express Rifled Barrels???


Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse