Page Index Toggle Pages: 1 Send TopicPrint
Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle (video added) (Read 8567 times)
The_Goose
Participating Member
*
Offline



Posts: 11
Joined: Feb 22nd, 2009
19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle (video added)
Mar 2nd, 2017 at 9:27am
Print Post  
I posted the write up below on another forum and a fellow there suggested that I post it here. Any additional info on either the cartridge or the maker would be appreciated. Thank you

I am extremely proud of this particular project. Although I have formed brass for quite a few antique firearms I have always had a starting place. I knew the caliber and was able to look up a likely parent case. This one I had to figure out and I still do not know what caliber it actually is.

First the rifle. It was built by Johan Rosler in the 1880's. So far this is all I can find out about him. "Johann Rosler was listed as a gunsmith in Salzburg Austria from the 1870s until the 1890s and was a maker of Fine Rifles, Drillings, and shotguns. He was appointed Buchmiester or Royal Court Maker sometime in the 1880s where he was the sole maker of firearms for the Royal Austrian Court and held this title until the 1890s."

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

It is a single shot hunting/stalking rifle chambered in some 11mm caliber. It was sold to me as chambered in .43 Mauser, but it is not. It is finely engraved and in almost mint condition. Even the screw heads are engraved and it has a Greek god face carved horn cap on the pistol grip.

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Double set triggers and a tang sight that completely folds into the tang and out of sight. Bore is pristine.

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

As I said it was sold to me as a .43 Mauser and it is not so I had to figure out what it is. Here is my process. I tried to chamber a .43 Mauser round, but the body of the case was too thick to fit. I took a chamber cast and slugged the bore. The groove diameter is .446 which would be consistent with a .43 Mauser. However, the
« Last Edit: May 20th, 2017 at 10:05am by The_Goose »  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
The_Goose
Participating Member
*
Offline



Posts: 11
Joined: Feb 22nd, 2009
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #1 - Mar 2nd, 2017 at 9:30am
Print Post  
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Zack T
Senior Forum Member
****
Offline



Posts: 354
Joined: Apr 9th, 2010
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #2 - Mar 2nd, 2017 at 9:48am
Print Post  
Congrats on that rifle !! I had seen that rifle when it went at auction and had wondered what happened to it. Am so glad you got it and have been shooting it. Great job. Really a fine looking gun
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
frnkeore
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 7324
Location: Central Point, OR 97502
Joined: Jun 16th, 2010
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #3 - Mar 2nd, 2017 at 11:12am
Print Post  
Excellent, thank you for the pictures and the write up.

Frank
  

ASSRA Member #696, ISSA Member #339
Back to top
YIMAIM  
IP Logged
 
oldstarfire
Participating Member
*
Offline



Posts: 38
Location: Center of Canada
Joined: Jan 17th, 2016
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #4 - Mar 2nd, 2017 at 3:32pm
Print Post  
pm sent
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
QuestionableMaynard8130
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 4144
Location: Benton  Harbor MI
Joined: Apr 17th, 2004
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #5 - Mar 3rd, 2017 at 8:10am
Print Post  
I have a very similar elegant light  "stalking rifle".  I acquired it some years ago from a fellow shooter as a barreled and but originally-stocked side-lever break-open action. 
Apparently the forend was missing when he acquired it, so as a talented machinist he re-created working forend metal, and then lost interest in it.   I got it from him, had the metal completed, and fitted a wood forend to it. 
It also seems to have been a "proprietary" variation on the .43 BN Mauser case---probably from before such cartridges were standardized.  I ended up doing a chamber cast and and having Rocky Mtn Cartridge turn 40 cases to fit the chamber. 
  They are BN on the exterior but thick-walled in the body (a la' everlasting cases) with a straight walled internal "combustion chamber".  I had them mark the case heads "11x61r Pauli" since that was the name inlaid in gold on the barrel.

I got sidetracked with other Euro-schuetzens for target use, and never have developed loads for it. I always wanted to try deer hunting with it, but our deer camp up north, where rifle hunting was legal, was sold. Maybe this will motivate me to take it off the wall and out to the range.
  

sacred cows make the best burger
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
marlinguy
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline


Ballards may be weaker,
but they sure are neater!

Posts: 16276
Location: Oregon
Joined: Feb 2nd, 2009
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #6 - Mar 7th, 2017 at 11:44am
Print Post  
Great looking gun, and nice write up! Love to see folks getting old guns shooting again!
  

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
UtahDave
Senior Forum Member
****
Offline



Posts: 395
Location: Heber City, Utah
Joined: Aug 14th, 2010
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #7 - Mar 7th, 2017 at 7:32pm
Print Post  
Great post and nice photos.  I think this would be a great topic for the ASSRA journal.   

Dave
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
powderman
Senior Forum Member
****
Offline



Posts: 335
Location: British Columbia
Joined: Feb 26th, 2005
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #8 - Mar 14th, 2017 at 2:20am
Print Post  
What a great old rifle. Real nice to get it shooting. Hoe does the rifle open to load?

Regards,
Powderman
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
ballardhepburnmich
ASSRA Board Member
*****
Offline



Posts: 598
Location: Scotts,mi.
Joined: May 20th, 2015
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #9 - Mar 14th, 2017 at 2:28pm
Print Post  
I will second that thought that it would make a great article for the ASSRA journal.
Lee
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
oneatatime
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 3913
Location: Rocky Mountains
Joined: Oct 30th, 2011
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #10 - Mar 14th, 2017 at 3:56pm
Print Post  
Powderman,
The Lefaucheux lever, of which you can make out the tip at the end of the forearm, rotates to the side which disengages a rotary cam from the locking lugs on the barrel which drops normally. This shotgun image should give you the idea.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
powderman
Senior Forum Member
****
Offline



Posts: 335
Location: British Columbia
Joined: Feb 26th, 2005
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #11 - Mar 15th, 2017 at 2:12am
Print Post  
Thanks oneatatime. I missed seeing the lever in the original post.

Regards
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
sharps4590
Junior Member
**
Offline



Posts: 91
Joined: Mar 24th, 2016
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #12 - Mar 17th, 2017 at 7:39am
Print Post  
I believe I saw your other thread but have forgotten where....imagine that from me.  I believe it bears repeating, "well done!!" on your case forming and load development.  There is not much that is as satisfying as what you did with the fine old rifle.

With the short forearm your lovely rifle has an almost Collath look to it.  

According to what I've learned over the several years of fooling with German rifles the 11.15 X 60R Mauser case head is known as the "A" base Mauser.  As with most former military cartridges several cases were based on it.  Most common probably being the 9 X 47R, 9.5 X 47R and the 10.5 X 47R.  The 9.5 case was for several years a successful Schuetzen cartridge.

I've also learned that what we think of as a tang sight on those old rifles is more than likely a diopter for sharpening the barrel sights.  Something all of us with older eyes have experience.  I have a couple so equipped and on them and many others I've had the privilege to examine there is no way to remove the rear barrel sight from the sight picture of the tang diopter.  When correctly adjusted, if they are adjustable, they work as good as the Merrit optical device or the Lyman diopter.

I have a similar rifle except that it is on a Jones underlever and as with yours sold to me as a cartridge different from what it really is and unknown to me.  I've come to call it the 9.3 X 62R, not to be confused with the 9.3 X 62 smokeless, bottleneck cartridge.  Mine was easier to form than yours as it turned out to be a shorter version of the 9.3 X 72R.  All I had to do was trim the 72R case to 62mm and work up an accurate BP load.  Great fun!

Again, what a lovely old rifle and another well done!!!

« Last Edit: Mar 17th, 2017 at 7:45am by sharps4590 »  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
The_Goose
Participating Member
*
Offline



Posts: 11
Joined: Feb 22nd, 2009
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle
Reply #13 - May 20th, 2017 at 10:04am
Print Post  
This video was taken for Chinese Youtube. Thought some might get a kick out of it.


(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
oldman46
Senior Forum Member
****
Offline



Posts: 424
Joined: Sep 21st, 2016
Re: 19th Century Austrian Sporting Rifle (video added)
Reply #14 - May 21st, 2017 at 12:02am
Print Post  
Thanks for posting the link, enjoyed it very much. One thing to post pics but the video gives a whole new look at the rifle. Kinda shocked when you said it only weighed about 6 pounds as it looks to be much heavier. Thanks again, Frank
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send TopicPrint