This Rodda retailed rifle was built for them in Zella – Mehlis on a commercial Mauser, Oberndorf action. The Mauser serial number 20857 dates the action to early 1908. The rifle was proofed 9.08 = September 1908 by the Zella – Mehlis proofhouse, gun number 158 of that month. 72.68 is a gauge number, lead balls o the pound, standing for a bore/land (not grove or bullet!) diameter in between .400” and .409”. As the CROWN-crown/N proofmarks show it was proofed using the ”Spandau 4000 atm proof powder” for a then service load of 3.5g = 54 gr of the military flake powder and a steel jacketed bullet. The barrel was rifled by SS = Schlegelmilch, Suhl.

The 10.75x63 cartridge was developed in 1904 by the Vienna gunmaker Johann Kaletzky’s Widow plus the ammo makers G.Roth and RWS. DWM started making ammo in 1908 for Le Personne, London, an international ammo wholesaler. My own 10.75x63 rifle is signed on the ribbed round barrel by Kaletzky and was proofed by the Vienna proofhouse in 1906. It came to me as a barreled action only. I completed, stocked, finished and sighted it myself. Lancaster’s “other 10.75x63”:

The 10.75x63 was replaced by Mauser’s x68 version from 1909, the same year the Rottweil powder factory brought their once famous R5 = Rottweil Nr.5 powder. For reasons unknown Mauser merely lengthened their case neck by 5 mm with no other changes to the case body. The photo shows a 10.75x68 factory load beneath my 10.75x63 handload with a Sierra .44 caliber 300 gr bullet:

As the cartridges are of the same dimensions except case neck length, I use RCBS 10.75x68 Mauser dies for case forming and loading. As loading data is nonexistent, I went by the scarce info I found. In the 1920s the cartridge was loaded with 3.8 g = 58.6 gr R5 powder and a 347 gr jacketed bullet to an advertised mv of 2130 fps from a 28” barrel. I first loaded the 10.75x63 with 58 gr VV N140 and a Woodleigh .423” 350 gr bullet. But for “fun shooting” at paper or running boar targets Woodleigh bullets are quite expensive, if obtainable at all. So I now use Sierra or Hornady 300 gr .44 (430”) bullets, resized to .423” in homemade dies. I load those in front of the same 58 gr N140 charge for about 2200 fps from my 22” barrel. Even this download is no slouch. Alas, it is at about the same power level like a .405 Winchester.