historical question: most powerfull Percussiongun?

[agent00]

hi, my question is allready in the subject line

 

[Rat]

Well...some cannons had percussion ignition, so it would be some kind of cannon.

Or does you mean "shoulder fired"?? Now THAT weren't in the subject line.

Rat

 

[agent00]

yes, sorry I meant what was the most powerful Percussion-rifle.

 

[Rat]

2-gauge/bore rifles were not unheard of at one time, which would have been some of the most powerful. However, seems I read one time about a 1" bore, shoulder fired rifle that was used by somebody in Africa.

Sorry about the lack of details...Squire Robin should know the answer to this...heck, he may own the most powerful shoulder fired percussion rifle. I know he has a wall gun.

Rat

 

[Slamfire]

I believe Sir Samuel Baker's 2 bore "Baby" was a flint lock, but 4 bores were made by virtually all the carriage trade makers throughout the muzzle loading era.

 

[agent00]

ok thanks for your answers

 

[RedFeather]

I think Baby was a percussion rifle. I have read that Baker once fired it and the hammer imbedded itself in the bridge of his nose. I can't imagine anything much more powerful unless it was some kind of a wall gun, used to defend forts and fired from a mount. Those tended to be large bore, also.

While not a percussion gun, my favorite was a single shot cartridge gun of 1.00 caliber (or one inch) that fired a hollow nosed projectile filled with about a dram of powder touched off by a .32 rimfire inserted backwards in the bullet tip. Was made for a Maharaja in the 1880's and actually test fired for the magazine article. Solidy killed several phone books.

 

[WV_Hillbilly]

Since one of the olde English proof tables list an "A" gauge as the larget bore size--which was approximately a

2 INCH BORE! (which AFAIK was only a smoothbore gun)

There wasn't a record of that being shoulder fired, but it was mounted on a boat as a "punt gun". Used for shooting down a flock of geese or ducks.

With a load of 1000 or more #2 shot, and pushed by probably a half pound of powder, I can easily see how several hundred birds might drop from a single blast. LOTS of good eatin' that would be!!!

The largest shoulder fired guage was the "4 bore" (as a smoothbore or rifled) which is approximately a 1 INCH BORE!
I have read where Baker had a 1 pounder made (which would make that a 1 gauge--don't know if it was a smoothie or rifled?)

Even that 4 bore is an awfully big gun to hold against your fragile shoulder. 2000gr of powder and 2000gr of bullet is getting in the neighborhood of 8000ft lbs of kinetic energy. With a 20lb gun, that is going to KICK something fierce!

Ouch!
WV_Hillbilly

 

[agent00]

thanks again for your great answers, and can tell me someone more about wall guns?

 

[Rat]

Squire Robin has one...where is that boy?

::

Rat

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've been trying to find some dimensions on Chesapeake Bay punt guns. The above image shows how they were mounted. The object was to quietly paddle up to a flock of waterfowl and spray a couple hundred with shot. 100 lbs seems to be the weight most often bandied about, and 2" A Gauge bores! "Twenty drachms of powder and six ounces of shot."

According to James Mitchner, these bad boys were named and many were used well beyond the legal life the game laws allowed. The Chesapeake has lots of estuaries to hide in.


The one below was copied from an original and used in the movie Tremors 4. A bore, 94 pounds. They had the same goal "What's the largest percussion gun ever used in America?"

Yippee!

 

[Gary]

Not the most powerful but the longest range was the British Whitworth rifle. It would reach out to 1880 yards and drive deeply into the oak target.

BTW, the Mariner Museum in Norfolk, Virginia (Yorktown Peninsula and near Fortress Monroe) has a display of punt guns.

 

[robinghewitt]

Squire Robin has one...where is that boy?

::

Rat

Mine's only a tiddler at .96" :thumbsup:

c1790 by Mewis of B'ham

 

[agent00]

thanks for the answers and for the great pictures.

 

[Slamfire]

Squire, I wanna commend you on yore discression. Pointin' that thing the other way could have the Homeland Security folks visitin' you right quick. :crackup: :crackup:

 

[Tumblernotch]

Boy, that's a purty thang! You could use the mainspring on it on a wolf trap!
:thumbsup:

 

[jimbo15563]

Interesting thread . . .

It's been years since I read Michener. Do I remember correctly him saying the market hunters also used nuts, bolts, and roofing nails in the punt guns?

Also, I just read Sir Baker's "Wild Beasts and Their Ways" and enjoyed it thoroughly. He talks about "Baby" and his other favorite, a .577 double which he shot with 6 drams of powder. He had his conicals cast with mercury mixed into the lead to make them harder for maximum penetration on elephants and rhinos.

This book can be downloaded for free at the Gutenberg Project website. The link follows:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3657

jimbo

 

[JoeC]

I can tell you first hand what it is like to shoot a
16 lb honest go god 4-=bore , 1.052" bore diameter. 1750 gr ball. with a 400 gr charge of 2f. It definately pushes you
back some ......... I built one last fall . Used it in our
Pa. deer season. Haven't gotten the nerve to get up to 500 grs yet , but have had one guy shoot it with a 460 gr load . Looked pretty funny backstepping a bit........
I built mine at 16 lbs.. with only a 30" bbl so i can actually carry it in the woods and use it here in the Pa. flinglock season. (shot my deer with it this year )
One of these days i will have someone show me how to get
the pictures out of my digital camera,and onto the computer.
It chronographs about 1250-1275 fps with the 400 gr load . Plug those numbers into one of those recoil calculaters and it comes out about 180 ft lbs. recoil .
For comparison , my 460 Weatherby comes out at 110 ft.lbs.
Joe. ...

 

[jimbo15563]

Joe,

I started a thread in the technical section of this forum which will walk you through the picture posting process. Here is the link:

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/ubbthr...p;page=0#101713

Hope it helps

Jimbo

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

What would be nice is a way to post directly to the forum using a scanner--now that I finally have one.