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In a PM sharps4590 asked this:
"Regarding the T & S drilling, I have seen a couple advertised with rifle barrels shorter than the shotgun barrels. Was that intentional by the builder and what possibly could be the reason?"
Maybe one of two reasons:
The inventive gunsmith and dealer Robert Schrader , Göttingen, had drillings made to his design by the Dreyse/Rheinmetall factory in Soemmerda with rifle barrels much shorter than the shot barrels. Here is a photo from an old DWJ article by M. Müller (penname, I know the man)
Schrader's idea: During his time around WW1 many hunters insisted on long shot barrels, but 28 -30" barrel assembly makes a drilling overly muzzle-heavy. by using a short 20" rifle barrel under the longer shot barrels he saved much weight at the front end and could make a better balanced gun.
If the rifle barrel is only a few inches shorter than the shot barrels, a common repair may be the cause. As everyone knows, a rifle barrel that lost his accuracy because of a worn or rusted out muzzle area may be salvaged by cutting off a couple of inches to get rid of the enlarged muzzle area. By cutting off the entire barrel assembly you will lose the tight chokes so dear to German hunters then. So German gunsmithes unsolderd the ribs, cut off the rifle barrel and side ribs only, fitted a new underrib to the shot barrels and resoldered and reblued everything. Here is an advertisement from the ca.1930 Burgsmüller, Kreiensen catalog. the left cut shows the result of this "OLD common method" claiming it's destruction of a drilling's looks. Burgsmüller advertised " their own, new method" consisting of counterboring the damaged muzzle.
Apparently Burgsmüller was not the only one who counterbored damaged rifle muzzles, as you encounter them fairly often in old drillings and combination guns. IMHO both repairs are makeshifts. Now you better send the drilling to a good gunsmith in Suhl or elsewhere. The gunsmith will remove the soft-soldered ribs, cut off the rifle barrel in front of the lumps, bore out the stump and fit in a new barrel, resolder and reblue the whole assembly and have it reproved. Expensive and time consuming, but you will end up with an entirely new barrel. But a serious collector once insisted on counterboring damaged barrels, as this preserves originality and does not add new proofmarks to an old gun. To each one his own!
"Regarding the T & S drilling, I have seen a couple advertised with rifle barrels shorter than the shotgun barrels. Was that intentional by the builder and what possibly could be the reason?"
Maybe one of two reasons:
The inventive gunsmith and dealer Robert Schrader , Göttingen, had drillings made to his design by the Dreyse/Rheinmetall factory in Soemmerda with rifle barrels much shorter than the shot barrels. Here is a photo from an old DWJ article by M. Müller (penname, I know the man)
Schrader's idea: During his time around WW1 many hunters insisted on long shot barrels, but 28 -30" barrel assembly makes a drilling overly muzzle-heavy. by using a short 20" rifle barrel under the longer shot barrels he saved much weight at the front end and could make a better balanced gun.
If the rifle barrel is only a few inches shorter than the shot barrels, a common repair may be the cause. As everyone knows, a rifle barrel that lost his accuracy because of a worn or rusted out muzzle area may be salvaged by cutting off a couple of inches to get rid of the enlarged muzzle area. By cutting off the entire barrel assembly you will lose the tight chokes so dear to German hunters then. So German gunsmithes unsolderd the ribs, cut off the rifle barrel and side ribs only, fitted a new underrib to the shot barrels and resoldered and reblued everything. Here is an advertisement from the ca.1930 Burgsmüller, Kreiensen catalog. the left cut shows the result of this "OLD common method" claiming it's destruction of a drilling's looks. Burgsmüller advertised " their own, new method" consisting of counterboring the damaged muzzle.
Apparently Burgsmüller was not the only one who counterbored damaged rifle muzzles, as you encounter them fairly often in old drillings and combination guns. IMHO both repairs are makeshifts. Now you better send the drilling to a good gunsmith in Suhl or elsewhere. The gunsmith will remove the soft-soldered ribs, cut off the rifle barrel in front of the lumps, bore out the stump and fit in a new barrel, resolder and reblue the whole assembly and have it reproved. Expensive and time consuming, but you will end up with an entirely new barrel. But a serious collector once insisted on counterboring damaged barrels, as this preserves originality and does not add new proofmarks to an old gun. To each one his own!
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