H&Rs also aren’t chambered for 50K psi rifle cartridges like the 8x57.
That was clearly a case of an overcharge, not an issue with the frame material.
The Germans proof each and every one of their guns to a higher overcharge than British guns. That’s why they are typically heavier in construction.
This....
German guns, even old ones, will usually hold up fine to abuse from ignorant North Americans. A good example is a "no-name" combination gun my wife Eileen purchased at a local gun show around 20 years ago. The seller (who was running the gun show, as he does many others in the state) had a tag on it stating the rifle chambering was 9.3x72R, a straight-case cartridge, which was originally a black powder round about like the .38-55 in power--but which was popular enough to make the transition to smokeless. It came came a box of RWS 9.3x72R ammo, about half of which had been fired in the gun, and was light, beautifully engraved gun in very good condition. The marks under the barrels indicated the gun had been proofed for smokeless ammo, and Eileen talked him down to almost half the price on the tag.
I knew there might small problems handloading for it, but felt pretty confident it could be done, partly because Norma still made 9.3x72R brass, and once home I did some measuring of the bores and the 16-gauge shotgun chamber. It turned out the rifle barrel was NOT chambered for the 9.3x72R, but the 9x72R--an almost identical case which fired 9mm bullets, considerably smaller in diameter than 9.3mm bullets, which usually measure around .366 in diameter.
The bore and grooves on Eileen's rifle were just about exactly .35 caliber--which made handloading for the gun considerably easier. I ended up loading the 180-grain Speer flat-nose Hot-Cor, designed primarily for the .35 Remington at about 1900 fps, which has knocked the snot out of the deer she's killed.
Anyway, this gun is probably at least a century old, but had around 10 factory rounds with .366 bullets fired through it with zero damage....
