Photos of my double.
Well here are some photos of my double. As mentioned above it is German hammer rifle (actually made in Saxony) circa. 1890s. Although I have owned it off & on (long story!) for over 20 years, I really don't know a great deal about it. It was made by a C. Grundig, of Dresden, I believe his first name was Carl, but have no other information as yet. I have been unable to find any reference to the caliber it is chambered for either, but gave it a name after I made chamber casts to have some reloading dies made a few years back. From the dimensions taken from the casts I called it a 12.3x62mmR.
The rifle is 43" long with 27" barrels, & weighs 6.25lbs dripping wet! It is profusely engraved in typical German fashion, with a variety of European game animals; Stag, Boar, deer, etc. It has an underlever, that is made of buffalo(?) horn, below the forearm, which pivots to the right to open the action (LeFacheaux Action?). The buttplate also appears to be horn & is carved with a scene depiction of the goddess Diana. It has a standing sight marked 100 with a flip-up leaf marked 200, there is also a folding sight inletted into the top tang. Both triggers are single-sets.
There is no clue as to the load used anywhere on the rifle, but due to it's age & an absence of nitro proofmarks it was obviously made for black powder or, at best, a transitional black/smokeless period gun. The rifling is very similar to that of the Henry-style. I had a mould made for it that throws a 425gn bullet. The bullet is .478" in diameter & then I paper patch it up to .488". Some BELL cases came with the rifle, they were .43 Mauser Basic & just needed to be trimmed to the 62mm length. They are of the Mauser 'A' base configuration....neat looking round. As mentioned above, I had some reloading dies made for it by CH-4D, it is a standard 3-die set, with the addition of a file-trim die.....they did a great job & the price was quite reasonable. Most of my shooting has been done at 50yds, on the ISSF 25m slow-fire pistol target (B-19). I have tried black powder (Goex & Kik) with moderate success, but have been very happy with the results I got when using Ross Seyfried's nitro for black formula. Firing from a rest I get sub 2" four shot (2x left, 2x right) groups pretty darn close to point of aim. I now have a couple of grades of Swiss black powder that I'll try out when my shooting schedule allows, it is a bit faster burning than the others & is apparently very similar to some of the 19th century powders in it's burning characteristics.
In the photo of the ammo it shows an empty case, one of my paper-patched bullets, a loaded 12.3x62mmR round, & a .45/70 Govt. for comparison sake.
I'd enjoy hearing from any of you who have some experience with loading black powder in these things, also any general topics regarding the history & shooting of doubles.
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Got some great pics and like talking about them.
