I bought a really neat old sidelever hammer 16x16x? a while back. I was probably informed on what the rifle barrel was when I bought it, but, as usual, I bought them faster than I write down details. In short, I dunno what the chambering is. It is probably 7mm and the chamber appears to be a more or less straight walled cartridge. The only marking on the rifle barrel, besides some proof marks, which look more or less like bear footprints, is 172/23 or maybe 17.2/23 and then, in front of the hanger it says 436, which is probably unrelated to the chambering. 7x57JR? Any guesses?

Really a neat little gun that someone mounted a Leupie 1.5x5 on with German style mounts. I put it at the early 1900s or earlier. Maker's name is quite long but starts with C. Grundig....etc Dresden.

While I'm no expert... I'd say the 172/23 is the date it was built. Feb 17 1923. The 7X57JR is a bottleneck so it's probably not the caliber. Look for some marks near the breach showing 6.8 if it's a 7mm. The best and basicly only way to know for sure is to make a bismouth/ cerrosafe chamber cast.

That makes sense about the date, but, again I claim no real expertise, I thought sidelevers were passe long before 1923, which is why I dated it earlier. There are no other markings on rifle barrel.

Can you get any accurate measurements of the rim, base and chamber length as well as the bore?

Mike:

I really appreciate your help, but I've cleaned it and put it up. I doubt I'd ever get around to shooting it anyway, so I'll let it rest for a while. Really a neat gun, very light and small for a drilling.

6.5x58 Sauer has a very long shallow taper and might appear straight walled by looking down the chamber. It was fairly common in the 20's and 30's for light game like rehbock.

You might want to repost this on the Drilling/Combination forum. Some of those guys are real, honest to goodness experts. They've sure helped me a few times.
Bfly