Dear Cable,
your elegant and - dare I word it thus: mince - Drilling is almost identical to one that I possess; only that mine is chambered in 24ga-24ga-6,5x52R. Same kind of underlever (called "Roux-Verschluss" in Germany, althought Monsieur Roux had little to nothing to do with it), shot-rifle barrel selector, and sideways Greener safety. I would love to compare the barel and watertable stamps !
I agree that this is a once common "Schonzeitdrilling" oder "Niederwilddrilling", as they existed between say 1900 and 1940. They were made for the trade (and they show show up in contemporary whiolesalersÄ and mail order catalogues), but the jury is still out on who actually furnished the guns. We had a discussion on this very question recently here on the forum.
In practice, and here I fully agree with your assessment, this would have been a nice "universal first gun" for a young hunter or a lady. Not an "el cheapo" gun, though.
The US cartridge variant .25-35 Win *could* factually be used in the rifle barrel - it fits and fires -, but this is usually disrecommended, because the nominal maximum use pressure of the .25-35 Win is a lot higher on the paper than of the continental 6,5x52R.
In practice however, both cartridges as of lately seem have to been loaded with nearly identical (low) pressures. Nonetheless, caveat venator.
Regards and Weidmannsheil,
Carcano
