Here's an old gun I picked up today. It's a damascus 16 gauge over a fluid steel rifle barrel about 44 caliber. The fellow I bought it from made 50 cases from a parent case. He shoots it with black powder and 44 caliber lead pistol bullets. He couldn't find the ammo today, so I'll have to go back and pick it up later. I'm looking into a chamber mate or a Briley subgauge unit to shoot 28 gauge ammo in the 16 gauge shotgun barrel. It should be lots of fun. Notice that aperture backsight. It is designed to align with the iron sights on the barrel and is intended to intensify the sight picture for aging eyes. It works! Would anyone hazard a guess as to some candidate rifle calibers that use a .430 bullet?




http://s396.photobucket.com/al...20Combination%20Gun/

I just love unique and beautiful weapons like this one.
I would just have to spend a ton of money getting her completely restored. I'll bet the combination of damascus and casehardened finish was a knockout.

I'm jealous, I admit it.

Cheers, John

Nice one! I shoot several guns with damascus barrels, both muzzle loaders and breech loaders. I would have it checked out and, if it checks out, I'd shoot black powder or low pressure loads through the shot barrel. It is just great fun. It's really fun to lay in a stash of paper cases and load them up with BP. It's surprising how effect light shotshells can be. Enjoy!
Bfly

I am very tempted to get the gun restored. But my experience with restored guns is that I don't use them for fear of damaging the finish. The shotgun barrel has four straight parallel grooves that look like straight rifling. I have seen that in my 1750's German ML fowler by Marder. I am told the straight rifling was put there in an attempt to make the shot group tighter. The rifle bore looks like it came from the factory. The previous owner is 82 years old, and he showed me a 50 yard, three shot group he fired last summer about 1-1/4 inches. Not bad shooting for the old gun and younger shooter! So what I think I'll do is shoot it some just to experience it, then pass it on to someone who would like to do the restoration.

quote:

Originally posted by Vol717:
I am very tempted to get the gun restored. But my experience with restored guns is that I don't use them for fear of damaging the finish. The shotgun barrel has four straight parallel grooves that look like straight rifling. I have seen that in my 1750's German ML fowler by Marder. I am told the straight rifling was put there in an attempt to make the shot group tighter. The rifle bore looks like it came from the factory. The previous owner is 82 years old, and he showed me a 50 yard, three shot group he fired last summer about 1-1/4 inches. Not bad shooting for the old gun and younger shooter! So what I think I'll do is shoot it some just to experience it, then pass it on to someone who would like to do the restoration.

When you get treough playing with it, let me know, I collect any firearm with more than one barrel. I especially like early German combination guns. Please save my E-mail addy DUGABOY1@aol.com

as to calib. i have a sxs sauer d.r. it has a .430 bore after a chamber cast and slugging the barrel it turned out to be .43 spanish necked down to .430. i fire formed .348 brass and use 375 grain lead bullets. i dont know if this helps but thats whay i ended up with.

I still don't have the formed cases, but I did try a .45-70 round in the rifle chamber. The .45-70 is about 1/2 inch too long for the chamber but the bore looks pretty close. I haven't done any barrel slugging yet. The shotgun barrel is a 2.5 inch 16GA.

Well, if it's german, maybe .43 mauser?

I think itis rarer than the .43 Mauser!

Try the 11.4X50 Austrian Werndl

.449 bullet

.472 neck

.493 base

.571 rim

1.97 case length

2.55 ctg length

twist 1 in 29

Berdan primed

.....................................

I received the ammo recently. The cartridge appears to have all the dimensions of the 43 Mauser except that the case is 55mm long rather than 60mm for the 43 Mauser. These cases were made from a chamber cast by shortening 8mm Remington Magnum cases, turning off their belts, then running them through a 43 Mauser die. Then he silver soldered sheet brass to form rims and lathe turned all 50 cases to dimension. It took him 4 days to make these cases and load the ammo. The load is a .429 lead pistol bullet over a case full of black powder. Then as an encore he loaded some 16GA paper shotgun shells with No 8 shot and black powder. Here are some new photos of the ammo and a link to the album:

http://s396.photobucket.com/al...20Combination%20Gun/