I recently bought a Schutzen rifle made in Germany and am having trouble identifying the caliber as it is not marked anywhere on the gun. I removed the barrel and took some basic measurements with a set of calipers:

Rim Diameter = .6175†(15.68)
Case Diameter just in front of Shoulder = .522†(13.25mm)
Chamber Length = 2.017’ (51mm)
Barrel Diameter = .370†(9.3mm)

Does anyone have any idea what caliber this could be?

Thanks in advance for any help…

Rem1

9.5x47R..........?

Two other Schutzens in 9.5 are the x54 and x54R.

GSP,

I pulled up the measurements and it seems close. It was difficult to measure the rim as there were two separate rim channels and thus there is the possibility that my measurement was slightly skewed.

Here is a link to a drawing of the cartridge http://www.stevespages.com/jpg/cd95x47r.jpg
Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that this was one of the more popular Schutzen calibers?

Any other possibilities that might fit the bill? Thanks for the help…

Rem

I had read this thread and these folks talking about it.

http://gunboards.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=158135

I've seen quite a few Shutzen rifles over the years. Almost all of them were chambered in 8.15x46R. The round was developed for target/competition somewhere between 1890 and 1900. Quite a few rifles in this caliber came to the US after WWII, brought home by returning GI's.

There were a gobzillion sporting and target rounds based on the 11,15x60 (.43) Mauser round in several families of slightly differing case lengths; 47, 50 and 51mm lengths being particularly popular. Within these families there were scads of variations of shoulder placement and neck length.

As mentioned above, the 9,5x47R (and its variations) was pretty common, but the main thing with these older oddballs is to not worry too much about what the original gunsmith thought he was chambering it for, but to make brass and bullets fit what you have. A good chamber cast is essential.

For a good reference on these ctgs, see Dixon's "European Sporting Cartridges" vol 1. Although it is unfortunately out of print, copies are fairly widely available and it's a real eye-opener into the hundreds of German rounds that were available from the 1870s 'til WWII.