R. Marshall,
The sketch doesn't include lengths, but I will make some more or less educated guesses, nevertheless. The head diameter( .5000"), right away, eliminates .308, 8x60, and 8x60R Mauser from consideration. Your statement that the caselength is around 1.96-1.97" eliminates 8x56R Hun. and 8x60R Krop. from consideration. This leaves only the 8x50R Austrian, which was the original caliber for the M95. This brings to mind the old saying," when you hear hoofbeats, think horses before zebras". The dimensions, shown, don't exactly match, but they hardly ever do. As a general rule, however, chamber cast dimensions are usually larger than cartridge dimensions. A chamber must be larger than the cartridge, for the cartridge to enter. A couple of the dimensions shown are smaller than the cartridge dimensions given in COTW, but not by much. There are often small differences with COTW dimensions, it is difficult to measure a chamber cast precisely to a tenth of a thousandth of an inch and timing of "cure time" for the cast may not be exact. With all this taken into account, I'm confident that my guess of 8x50R is accurate, and it matches Jani's. One minor point for future consideration: the "lands" and "grooves" on the chamber cast are reversed from the barrel, so sometimes description of dimensions are confusing. I was surprised to see actual barrel groove dimension is .329", but .329" bullets are available from PRVI( see Graf's).
Mike
Last edited by Der Ami; 01/10/19 11:33 AM.
