A big gun at Dixon's

[Leonredbeard]

A Gentleman named Joe Chindem, who posts here occasionally had a very big gun with him. He built it with a Rayl Barrel. Here are some pics.
Joe with gun.

Here is a .50 ball on the lip of the muzzle of the four gauge rifled gun.

a four bore ball with a fifty ball

Joe grabbed a fifty pistol barrel off Getz's table to compare bores.

God bless.
volatpluva

 

[RJR]

Not my shoulder!

 

[AeroE]

Any idea what the gun weighs?

I'm pretty amazed. Nice looking gun, too, from what I can see in the photo.

 

[bob1961]

17 + lbs....he also said he has had the powder load up to 460 grains....ouch....and lucky me when i meet up with him at the range to do some shooting i will have the honors of pounding my bones with it at least once :shocking:....can some one please talk me out of it..................bob

 

[bbassi]

Now THERE is a gun you could bark some tree rats with! ::

 

[F.G. Ford]

It is nice to see a real gun where you can use .50 cal balls as shot.
One of the lads down the road from me has a 4 ga. smooth bore for sale at $1800 Canadian. nice piece but a tad too heavy for upland game.
Best Regards

Old Ford

 

[RiverRat]

Yep, I seen it with my own eyes. 1700gr round ball :hatsoff:

 

[john s mosby]

How about this one for a really big gun?

 

[rmonday2]

Wouldn't mind adding that one to my collection!
You could almost crawle in side and clean that puppy :kid: Ronnie...

 

I want ONE! Could you imagine the damage a hangfire would do to your shoulder?

Just :m2c:

 

[Bob Riegl]

I happened by when you were looking at this gun---I couldn't begin to guess what it might be used for---mebbe the Barrett .50 BMG of it's day???? I really don't want to think of benching that gun without a shooting jacket or padding. Other than that beautifully made and quite a gun to boot. I have shot a .62 calibre Forsythe rifled gun which made my 195# frame do the Texas Two-Step, followed by the Shuffle Off To Buffalo---with 260 gr of FFg and patched ball. My friend shot a bear with this gun and the ball went clean through the beast, who ripped up the scenery for a couple of seconds and then died. :shocking:

 

[3 stinky dogs]

That is a big gun.Say,to put it in perspective for me what would the recoil compare to as rar as smokelessguns?

 

[B.Habermehl]

I believe Joe said he did the math and the numbers are as bad or worse than a 460 Weatherby. YEEEEEESCH!!!!! Better HIM than ME! :master: BJH

 

[AeroE]

That is a big gun.Say,to put it in perspective for me what would the recoil compare to as rar as smokelessguns?

The result is strongly dependent on the muzzle velocity, but here is an example -

Four Bore: 1700 grain bullet, 460 grains of powder, 17 pound gun, and assume a 1500 fps muzzle velocity (a ballpark guess, since I don't know).

My .30-06 Loads: 150 grain Prohunter, 59.0 grains of IMR 4350, the gun weighs 6.5 pounds, and the muzzle velocity is about 2950 fps. This gun kicks hard off the bench and is brutal to shoot this way, but it carries great in the woods.

The four bore has 2% more recoil. Increase the muzzle velocity to 1800 fps and it has 47% more recoil than my .30-06. Ouch.

 

[JoeC]

AeroE
The velocity of the 400 gr load is about 1350 fps ,shot over a chronograph.
You might want to check the recoil calculations you used . Only 2% more recoil? Something seems wrong,(typo maybe?)
I have shot some lightweight guns even in 30-06 cal and i can tell you that it recoils much more than that .
I have owned a 460 Wtby mag for about 30 years now , and
that has about 100 ft lbs of recoil. This 4-bore , loaded up a with 400 gr plus load, recoils a lot more than the 460 does,(the 4-bore is the only gun i have ever fired whose recoil made me take a step or two backwards ), some of the bigger guys who have fired it only rock backwards a bit , and if leaning into it correctly only their left foot (right hand shooter)
comes up off of the ground a foot or so........One of my buddies shot it with a 480 gr load , and he must have not been leaning into it correctly , because he took about 4-5 steps backwards......looked pretty funny on video .....
Joe.

 

[AeroE]

AeroE
The velocity of the 400 gr load is about 1350 fps ,shot over a chronograph.

Joe.

You're right, I was concocting a simplified calculation off the top of my head. How about this -

4 Bore: 6.2 times more impulse, 2.4 times more gun speed, and 14.7 times more kinetic energy in the free recoil. (Calculated with the original 1500 fps muzzle velocity)

Still have fillings after shooting that little darlin'?

[5.7 times more impulse, 2.2 times more gun speed, and 12.6 times more kinetic energy in the free recoil at 1350 fps. And about 75% more recoil than the Weatherby with a 500 grain bullet.]

 

[JoeC]

AeroE
That sounds a little bit closer to what it actually feels like, when you actually shoot it .!!!!
It's actually not too bad to shoot when you stick to
about 225 grs of 2f , this gives you about 1000 fps.
The recoil feels maybe a little less than that of the 460. Off the bench you can go maybe 10-12 shots before it gets to you.
The gun will shoot around 2-2 1/2" groups at 50 yards,off the bench , with that load . That is the load i used to shoot my deer with this past season ...
Oh yeah , my fillings are still in place ,(just have to remember to keep my mouth shut so i don't have to pick up my partial, after each shot .........ha. ha.
Joe.

 

[3 stinky dogs]

Well how does a guy go about getting one of those ?The biggest I ever shot was 416 Rigby so recoile dont bother me .Well I dont think it bothers me That is a beast!.I guess shooting this babie from the prone is a good way to get out of work for a day or two.

 

[JoeC]

Stinky
I guess you can get one the way i did , build it yourself........ I have shot the 416 Rigby , and the 460
Wtby kicks quite a bit more .A 10 lb. 416 has about 60 ftlb recoil , a 10 lb 460 has around 100 ftlb recoil , the recoil range on this gun runs from about 120 ftlb with the 200 gr load , up to about 160-180 ftlb. with the 400-450 gr load. If you wanted to build one yourself , i could give you a list of the parts i used .
Joe.

 

[3 stinky dogs]

I would like that.I have spent all I can on guns and if I try for any more before Januarey I will have to undergo the Bobbit procedure .But I would like to have the parts and suppilyers list.I can start the year right by blowing my tax refund on somthing usefull