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Drilling caliber?

ccole23
Just aquired a turn of the century German Drilling and am trying to find out what caliber the rifle barrel is.

I made a chamber cast and the bore appears to be about .375 in diameter and the case is about 2.8" long (approximate).

Any help appreciated.
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5 comments

Date Votes
  • 11b6r
    Just a REAL rough guess- but get a round of 9.3 X 72R, see if measurements are close.
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  • nononsense
    ccole23,

    It's hard to say what you have. Caliber is used to identify a diameter while cartridge is used to identify the chamber.

    European cartridge nomenclature could use either the land diameter or the groove diameter which gets real confusing sometimes until we decide to talk about the diameter of the bullet in which case we need the groove diameter.

    These are not in scale:

    93x72r360nitroexpressla.jpg

    The 9.3x72R uses .366" diameter bullets with a case length of 2.835" approximately. Also referred to as the .360 Nitro Express. It was developed about 1899.

    375flangedne95x63rmunic.jpg

    The 9.5x63R uses .375" diameter bullets with a case length of 2.480" approximately. Also referred to as the .375 Flanged 2-1/2" by the British. It was developed about the same time, 1899.

    375flangedmagnumnitroex.jpg

    The .375 Flanged Magnum NE or 9.5x74R is the British rimmed version of the .375 H&H. The bullet diameter is .375" while the case is 2.910" in length.

    There are other oddball cartridges that are essentially wildcats but they are significantly less widely available.

    Best.
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  • 22hipower
    9.3X72R would be my guess too. You can still get ammo, or could several years ago when I got some for mine, from the Old Western Scrounger; http://www.ows-ammo.com/catalog/
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  • ccole23
    tHANK yOU FOR THE GOOD INPUT THE BARREL IS TAMPED 8.7MM IF THIS HELPS
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  • nononsense
    ccole23,

    Not only will it help but any other marks that you find on the drilling now. I didn't think I needed to say anything since you knew enough to do a casting of the chamber but you need to photograph the water table, the underside of the breech area of the barrels and the underside of the barrels under the forearm. These need to be sharp so we can discern what the marks are. Fuzzy doesn't help. If there is anything written on the rib, we could use that information also. That way we don't have to get bits and piece of information that could quite possibly tell you part of the story of what you have.

    Best.
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