Need help with a translation. Swiss???

[Mr. Sir]

I found this tag under the butt plate of a Swiss military rifle. It's a Schmidt-Rubin 1911 carbine in 7.5 X 55 caliber. I'm guessing it's the name of the soldier and possibly the date of issue. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Paul B]

you can try different permutations / spellings here Brett, it might be capable.
http://translate.google.com/#

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Stig spent a lot of time in Switzerland. He may be able to help.

 

[stig]

Leon Drouse would be a name, the rest could be an old address from before postal numbers.
But I really cannot read the writing.

And of course it is a Scmidt_ Rubin, what else would it be if it is a Swiss army rifle?

 

[Mr. Sir]

The Google translator is not much help as its difficult to cypher the letters. Here's a site that was referred to me by my uber-knowledgable shooting buddy, Don. http://www.swissrifles.com/sr/tags/

Stig is right, the first line is the soldier's name, Leon Drouse, and his date of birth, 1913.
The second line is his unit, which appears to be "Gren" meaning grenadier and the unit number.
The third line is probably his address or home town.

BTW Stig, it could have been a Vetterli.

 

[Mr. Sir]

OK, I've located a town in Switzerland called
Vuisternens-dt-Romont which is about as close as I could find to what is written on the tag. Pretty cool, huh?

 

[SkwerI]

That's wild, Brett.

 

[sotc]

Tis interesting

 

[stig]

Good going.
What had me stumped was that I thought the last word would be the Kanton and there is no Cantonement that starts with an R.

And I plumb forgot the Vetterli!

 

[woodworkingboy]

That is cool Brett, it really adds to the fun of collecting something.

 

[Mr. Sir]

I'm trying to figure out a way to track down the family, if possible. But I'm not positive about the name; it looks like Drouse, or Dronse, or maybe that last letter is a "c"? What do y'all think it is?

 

[woodworkingboy]

It appears 'Drousc', to me.

 

[stig]

I read it as Drouse, and seeing that he was from kanton Freiburg, which is mainly german speaking, that would be the most logical way of spelling it.

 

[stig]

Try here, Brett:

http://www.eye.ch/swissgen/schweiz.html