I came across a drilling the other day. No makers marks, no date stamp, UGN proof marks (no B). Even a W stamp(never seen that one before).

The barrels are marked ALFA in a crest with FFF. 16ga with 9.3x72.

I know ALFA was a large company in the early 1900's. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Sounds to me like a black powder proofed gun.

Not much to go on here, sounds to me like it might be early Austrian and the W standing for the Vienna proof house.

Well, photobucket was down so I could not upload them. I posted them on my blog. They will be the first post on the page. You can access them by going to:

http://myersarms.wordpress.com/

Thank you for your help! I will get more detailed photo's, along with posting these here sometime this week.

I looked at the photos, It has some very distinktive markings with German proof and posibly some Austrian reproof.

Without researching a little to confirm my assesment of the drilling I am probably putting my foot in my mouth but your gun I belive is 1930's vintage Suhler. The proofs are the same as guns of mine from that time and the engraving looks strikingly similar to a 30's vintage drilling I once owned made in Suhl.
I have a Bartels bbf made in Weisbaden from this time and it also has the W proof. I don't know if there was a proof house in Weisbaden then or now but I have never heard of one and I doubt that that is the origin of the W proof mark.
Maybe try a google search of pre 1939 German proof marks for some answers.

quote:

pre 1939 German proof marks

Great suggestion.

http://www.germanguns.com/technical.html

W proof mark is a choked barrel.

Also according to the above sight the drilling would be pre-1912!

This gunbroker item is almost identical. Instead of the ALFA crest it has the Prima crest.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti....aspx?Item=236019853

According to Baron von Engelhardt, writing in old Gun Digests, (e.g 10th ed):

“8,7m/m” on lower barrel: “The very commonly used 9,3x72 (now called 9,3x72R) frequently was marked as 8,7 and similar”.

Note; for the 9,3x72R there are 3 cartridge shapes (D, E and Normal), so contact me if you find that modern RWS and/or S&B ammo does not fit your chamber.

“U” for Untersuchung, (Inspection), using a crown shaped like a pentagon within a pentagon and with a small cross above.

“G” for Gezogen means rifled.

"S" means Schrot (shot); means the shotgun barrel.

St. m. G. plus a weight in grams (x 15.43 conversion = weight in grains of bullet) Stands for Stahl Mantlel Geschoss, Supplementary mark designating service projectile for rifles; 1912-1939).

Crown "W", a supplementary proof mark indicating barrels with choke, used 1891-1939: W= Würgebohrung = choked.

2.2g G.B.P = proof load of rifle flake powder used. G.B.P. = Gewehr Blattchen Powder

N = Nitro, so appears to be nitro-proofed. Crown N (Mark for nitro proof, 1893-1939).

Did I miss any out? If you find, at the root of the rifle barrel, a ZM interlocked, this means it was made in Zella-Mehlis, Germany, (near Suhl). It would also help date it.

If this combination guns is in good working order, it would be interesting, if you have removed the action from it's stock, to know what sort of firing pin springs it has. For instance, are they coil springs but flat in cross section? I have an identical gun, but we cannot get springs that do not catch on each other when any one of them is discharged and so a misfire is the result. I can, if you like send a picture of the action, which is called a Roux-action or Roux-Verschluss in German, after the Paris-based gunsmith who must have patented this snap-lock, underlever action.

ALFA Tradename used by Adolf Frank of Hamburg, Germany, a distributor of all types of arms around 1900 (Germany).

Kiwi, thank you for the great info!

I do not know what 9.3x72 chambering the rifle barrel is, though I had tried two boxes of store bought reloads that came with the drilling. None of them fit. There are two cartridges in the butt stock cartridge trap that fit the chamber nicely. They are DWM cases with huge primers and from the looks of it, are about as old as the drilling.

After seeing the photos it is definitely nitro proofed and I would guess it to be a 1920-era gun in 9,3X72R. It could also be a 9,3X57R, based on the same case as the X 72 R. I have encountered several in the 9,3X57R; one I re-chambered to 9,3X72R.