I picked up this little jewel about 6 months ago and worked with it diligently until I found a load that worked excellently for me at 50 yards. I'd never put it on paper at 100. Yesterday I decided it was time to do so. The rifle is a Jones underlever in 9.3 X 62R. Not the big smokeless cartridge, a straight cased rimmed cartridge from the late 1870's or early 1880's from what I've been able to learn. The rifle, top one in first picture then a close up or two:







I set up a target on my little 100 yard home range and the front rest and butt bag on my bench then proceeded to see how the rifle would shoot at that distance. I was pleasantly surprised with both the rifle and my shooting. I had a good day!!!



The first shot cut the bottom of the target just beneath the "S" in Bogg's, 2nd shot in the 5 ring so I'm sneaking up on it. After a sight picture adjustment I fired the next 3 for group. Load is Norma 9.3 X 72R cases shortened, 58 grs. of Fffg Scheutzen, .020 card wad, a pea sized grease cookie, another .020 card topped with a 203 gr. plain base bullet of 203 grains from an Accurate Mold. Plain ol' open sights. The rifle may do better but I don't believe I can, not with open sights even with the rifle benched and bagged. Pretty good results for a 62 year old man who wear glasses and a 130 year old rifle...

Very nice! Incredible group with the usual iron sights of that era, or any.
Tell about the drilling too. A BPCR too I am assuming.
Lou M

Are you using black or smokeless powder?

Thanks Lou. It is a rather incredible group, especially for me. The light was good for shooting and I had good target definition...but I don't believe I can consistently duplicate it. Probably has a lot more to do with "even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while". 50 yard groups fired the same, off a bench, are at least as good and those consistently....almost boringly consistent. The little rifle does shoot.

I've been unable to determine the maker of the drilling even with the help of friends in the German Gun collectors Assn. It is not Nitro proofed so in the shotgun barrels I do shoot black. They are the "to be expected" 16 bore, which is fine with me as that's my favorite, and typical of the era choked a bit tight for most American tastes...but I like them!! The rifle barrel has been rechambered from original and done in this country as there is no Crown over "R" proof mark which would have been required in Germany. Originally it was a 9 X57R/360D but I forget what that means. I do know it is a German equivalent of a 360 British case, maybe the 360 X 2 1/2 as the case measures 2 7/16 when trimmed. There is so many I can't keep them straight. Some enterprising gunsmith opened it up to a bottleneck case which could be called a 30/40 Krag X 9mm. I make the cases from Krag cases and open them up to 9mm and they have to be shortened a bit....like 3/16 or less. Other than fireforming nothing else is required. Case head, rim diameter and thickness fit perfect. As it's bottle neck and the neck is quite short a lot of the 9mm, 200 gr. bullet protrudes into the case. With that in mind I haven't tried black in it to date because of the soft lubes used in BP cartridges. I am concerned that in hot weather it would melt out and foul the powder. I have a Unique load and a Trail Boss load that are the equivalent to Nitro for Black. That drilling is quite accurate until the barrel heats a bit and then it starts to walk like all the rest. I had to make a new front sight for it as the original was really buggered so shooting it in for the most accurate load was a snap.

conifer, the complete load data is in the first post. I'm pretty sure Scheutzen Fffg is black powder.

9.3: As a fellow 62-year-old with glasses, I fully appreciate your achievement at 100 yards with open sights. What a lovely rifle, and in a useful caliber.

I can hardly remember back that far to sixty-two and pre-trifocal glasses...

You are thinking the 8x57R-360 cartridge. Interesting history, it was formed from the British 360 cartridge shortened to 57mm, and bottlenecked to the smaller diameter (.318") 8mm bore.

My C. Guntermann Hofbuchsenmacher, Dusseldorf, both "u" with Umlaut is chambered 16 gauge over that rifle cartridge. NOE offers a bullet mold in the oversize 311299 Lyman design (316299) that casts about .318" from my alloy. I am tinkering with powder coating in lieu of messy lube. Size the bullets in a honed-out .3175" die to square them, and apply the gas check (home made from aluminum litho sheets from the newspaper. My O/U has been stamped "NITRO" on the left side at the chamber, and the guess from research is 1904-05. Fairly lightweight, at 7.5lbs empty with 27 1/2" barrels. The rifle trigger is even a set trigger, and the scroll engraving is complimentary to the engraved game animals and birds.

As an aside, a one pound can of Folgers and a dozen donuts gets me about forty sheets the size of a newspaper page. Equivalent to about 100,000 thirty-caliber GC's.

You have a true treasure there.

Rich

No Rich, it was 9mm to start with and was originally a straight or straight taper case we're nearly certain. What it has been rechambered to is a short necked, bottleneck case with almost an Ackley shoulder. It has one mark on the rifle barrel but I forget exactly what it is so won't say until I look....I'll screw it up for sure!! There's too many little stampings on different firearms runnin' around in my head!!

It is speculation but one of my GGCA friends with great experience with German firearms of the period and who spent many years in Germany palling around with German gunsmiths thinks the following possible and perhaps even probable. If the drilling was a war trophy it is most likely no one was familiar with the original chambering and that certainly no brass or ammo was available at the local gunshop some 70+ years ago. The owner, wanting to use the gun, had a 'smith open up the chamber to something that could be easily made from readily available brass. I wasn't there but suspect the 30-40 Krag was still a common cartridge right after WWII. The smith opened up the chamber to work with the Krag brass with little work. I can't say that isn't possible and makes the most sense of anything else any of us have thought of. Equally, no one can say exactly what happened or the why's and wherefore's of what was done to the drilling. Who knows? The drilling does shoot very well in its current guise and has displayed no bad habits regarding loads so I'll be happy with it as is.

Good shooting! Cup of coffee in town, when things slow down.

Sure Ozark, still got my number? I'll PM.

Very nice gun, and good shooting.