I keep buying weird stuff that ends up puzzling me.
I have had a few German hammer drillings, but never kept any of them permanently. I started watching an old Sauer Cape gun on GB a while back, but I thought it was overpriced. However, I eventually bought it because it
was in tremendous condition and the ad said they thought it was a 16 ga/577 Snider. They gave rough chamber and throat dimensions and it seemed close to a Snider chamber, but the groove and land numbers seemed large. This is often true for the military carbines so I didn't think much about it.
When I got the gun, I dropped in a Snider cartridge, and it went past the extractor and deeper into the chamber. Hmmm. I measured and checked and tried, and finally realized it had a 20 gauge shotgun chamber, for a 2" shell,
I had to extrapolate the numbers, but my best guess is that the gun was built in 1875-76. The gun is incredible, particularly the barrels. They look to be almost unfired. The 16 gauge barrel (2-1/2") measures right on spec and looks perfect. The rifled barrel has absolutely no erosion, no scratches, no pits and the rifling and grooves are perfectly clean, straight and shiny to the bottom of the grooves. turns out the rifled barrel is (I suspect) a 20 gauge brass 2" cartridge. The barrel has 8 grooves ( 1:100 twist or so) with a bore of a 20 gauge and grooves of a diameter to match a brass 20 gauge shell I.D. (I chamber cast the throat and barrel).
I'm no expert, but I have never seen anything like this exactly. The gun has permanent adjustable sights. That would eliminate the intent to scatter the shot for wingshooting. It would also seem to elminate a Paradox type load, since the entire barrel is rifled. It is set up like a true cape gun, except that the rifle barrel is a shotgun. All the shotgun answers are discounted by the two different bore sizes and the permanent sights. It is not a true ball and shot gun, since it has dedicated rifle sights. I would say it is a combination gun with a shotgun and a bore rifle, but the barrel doesn't seem to be thick enough to push into the bore rifle category, although it is thicker walled than the shotgun size due to the barrels being the same contour outside.
Anyone know the proper name for this setup? Anyone seen one before? I am at a loss on this. Wouldn't be the first time.
