Introduction from a new member.

[Hank]

I am retired from self employment after many years. Really enjoying it. I have been involved with firearms of all descriptions as a hobby for six decades. As a young child I saw my first drillings in my next door neighbors home. He had brought them back during WWII. Recently, I found one for sale and I treated myself to it, actually with very little knowledge about them. It seems to be a very respectable, honest wear, very tight combination gun. Thanks to this site I have learned a lot about this particular gun reference proof marks. A little humor, I finally figured out on my own. The flip up rear sight would not stay up on it's own-then sometimes it was up, sometimes down! It took me a little while to realize that in selecting the rifle chamber it came up and went down with the selection of the shotgun barrels.

A few pics and appreciation in advance for any added info from the wealth of knowledge here on the forum.

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[Hank]

A few more

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[Hank]

And finally-Not exactly sure about the "NORM" in the first pic after the 9.3-72 as I have found no reference to this after the caliber.

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[mike ford]

Hank,
Welcome, we are happy to have you with us. It looks like you have a fine old drilling, I enjoyed seeing it. The "Norm." is abbreviation for Normalisiert( Normalized), which means standardized . There were several versions of the 9.3x72R, causing a lot of confusion. The Norm. version was a compromise version to fit as many of the other versions as possible. Simply cleaning up one of the other version's chamber with a Norm. reamer would standardize the chamber to use easily available ammunition. It is highly possible that your drilling was first chambered for 9.3x72R D( German version), then rechambered to 9.3x72R Norm.. The presently available 9.3x72R ammo will fit your chamber. I was interested to see the "Hurbertus" stamped on the water table , as this was the trademark of the Immanuel Meffert company. I believe Meffert supplied the parts from which Kerner made the drilling. These two companies were connected by marriage, and this is the first time I have seen both company's mark on the same gun( there are a lot of things I haven't seen). Since the bore diameter is shown in mm, and there is no case length shown( in the original proof), I believe the gun was proofed in 1911 or 1912 when they were changing to the improved version of the 1891 proof law. I hope you find this helpful.
Mike

[Hank]

Thank you Mike for the input. Shells should be here today and first bullets next week. Should it shoot accurately, and I have no reason to doubt that it will, reloading for it will be in the near future. The rifle barrel is in extremely good condition and the shotgun barrels are not perfect, but very good. The Hubertus was double struck and beside it are the script letters, "H B" but inverted to the "Hubertus". As a firearms enthusiast, as mentioned, there is something to learn every day. This is a totally new experience and a lot more to learn. Thanks again.

[mike ford]

Hank,
Have you "slugged" the barrel yet? With a bore diameter of 8.8 mm , I would expect the groove diameter to be in the neighborhood of .362-.364MM. We find them from .352(rare) to .368". My late friend and mentor Gene, had a custom handloading business. He kept records from the 1940s until he died, of groove diameters of all the rifles he loaded for. He found .362-.364" to be the most common, in his experience. However, we find quite a few .357-.358", which makes bullets easy. Just be sure to use bullets made for the 9.3x72R, or cast bullets. There are a lot of 9.3 mm bullets on the market that are intended for the more powerful rifles and are not suitable for the x72Rs. You can do whatever you need to do with cast bullets.
Mike

[Hank]

Mike, thanks again. I have not slugged it as yet, but virtually everything I shoot is cast by me. From 256WM to big bore. I shoot lead in over a dozen different calibers. I will probably get a mold from NOE in the near future, after slugging the rifle. Any other suggestions are welcome. It is the last week of archery season and I am playing it to the max so some things are sorta on the back burner. I am in NC and we have a limit of 2 bucks and five does. Most of my hunting is with a recurve and I took my first buck in velvet this year. I really don't want another buck until gun season as I would love to try this "new" one out. But I enjoy being out there.
Hank

PS I went ahead and slugged the barrel...looks like .363.

[algmule]

Hank,
if HB. (KB.?) are initials for a Suhl craftsman here are a few suggestion. Let me stress that they are suggestions, nothing more. The below listed people were all from Suhl and they were around in 1910-13 and it's your pick between H and K as I can't make out which it is. Here goes:

Karl Baewert Büchsenmacher
Heinrich Barthelmes Büchsenmacher
Hermann Barthold Büchsenmacher
Hugo Beck Büchsenmacher
Heinrich Benz Büchsenmacher
Karl Berkes Graveur
Karl Berkes Büchsenmacher
Hermann Beyersdörfer Büchsenmacher
Karl (Christian) Borsch Büchsenmacher
Heinrich Büttner Büchsenmacher
Karl Büttner Büchsenmachermeister
Karl Brandt Büchsenmacher
Karl Buchholz Büchsenmacher
Hilmar Bornmüller Gewehrfabrikant (highly unlikely)
(Hermann Bäz Schlosser)

Nothing to do with your Drilling but in 1912 (possibly late 1911) a Louis Hellfritzsch and his wife and a couple of other people were taken to court for stealing and selling stolen 98 parts from DWM. Apparently employed people at DWM stole parts and Hellfritzsch and his wife sold them. One of the the buyers of these stolen 98 parts was Gewehrfabrik Emil Kerner. Another one was a Kaufmann Richard H. Müller, London. There were other buyers as well. Just a little digression on the name that's upon your Drilling.

By the way. Really nice Drilling. I have the same calibre combination in my Drilling. A Monopol-Drilling with side lever. 9,3x72R is a neat calibre, although hellish to get hold of if you are living were I am and don't load for it. I believe Sellier & Bellot is the only available ammo now. Norma and RWS had them before.

Kind regards
Peter

[Hank]

Thank you, Sir. I will try and post a higher resolution picture of the initials tonight.

[mike ford]

Hank,
I have good luck with a blunt nose 210 gr bullet, sized to .364". This rifle has .358" groove dia. A friend and I went in together and cast a big pile of these bullets, that dropped at .368". His drilling was .362", so he needed .364"; I needed .360", but didn't want to take over .005" at one time, so we sized them all to .364". When I started to load, I tried the .364", to see if they would chamber. They did, and worked well, so I just never sized my share to .360". I lived in NC twice and loved it there. When I was at Ft. Bragg, we leased hunting rights in White Oak and I killed a buck (but with 7x57R, not 9.3 x72R). By the way, that blunt nose bullet is the Hensley and Gibbs number 512c. I'm pretty sure this bullet mold is no longer available, but maybe NOE can duplicate it.
Mike

[Hank]

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älgmule, Here are the upsized and hopefully clearer initials. I read it as HB

Mike, I have been powder coating my bullets with good results, With a bore slug showing .363 I am thinking maybe I will try Accurate 37-196B at .365 diameter.

Speaking of deer, I found some rubs on the South side of our farm yesterday, so I put out a little corn and a camera. There were 90 pics on it when I checked it today! A lot of does then at 3:51 the does bolted, looking towards the North end of the field. At 3:53 you see who was coming after them! Hung a stand and a ground blind within in 9.3-72 range today. Gun season opens in 9 days.

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[mike ford]

Hank,
That is a nice buck. One of my friends powder coats his bullets, with good luck, but I'm too old to get into something new. Anyway red or sky blue bullets look funny to me, black is not too bad. Our gun season starts Sat. morning, I will be in camp, but will not likely "go out". I have to hunt ground blinds( my friends call them "shooting houses") because I can't navigate ladders any more. We do have one tower( kanzel) that I can climb. It was built by a friend that had a stroke later, and other friends built a staircase with a landing so he could hunt with us, until he had more strokes. He his gone now, so we try to hunt his stand sometimes in memory. With the handrails and landing, I can hunt it. The ground blinds and the tower are on food plots and they won't get "good" until later. Our Rut is not until the end of Jan. until Feb. We shoot does, but some fawns still have spots now, so I will just wait until later. Some of the others have cameras out, but I haven't seen the photos.

Mike

[Hank]

Mike, Good luck on your hunt. You never get too old to try something new! I started powder coating at 69 and wish I had done it long ago. Results in my 38-55 were much better than I expected. At 71 I am embarking on a new caliber and a drilling!
The buck came in much earlier last night, twice before 8:15, but after shooting light. The doe below spent several minutes posing for the camera. Hank

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[sharps4590]

They can be funny critters.

[Hank]

Update, the buck is still here as of yesterday. Secondly, the right hammer seemed a little loose and wobbly. I have decided to attempt to locate the problem. The screws scared me at first, but with diligence I removed the screw from the left side of the receiver in the left lock. The right lock fell out and a quick tightening on the bridge took care of the problem. I was a precision instrument man in the US Navy and worked on clocks and watches. This lock is amazing. The screws, tightened and the locks returned to position and all is well. Should be shooting at 50 to 70 yards should he show up where he has been off and on since 8/8/18. Problem he has been nocturnal. He has reverted to 4 hours or so earlier. If the multifarious does come in heat his number is up with the 9.3X72R that I have found to be very accurate. Thanks again for all of the help here and thanks for having me. I have a lot of "favorite" weapons, but this one is at the top of the list.