• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Oops

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I wanted a 4 bore smoothbore when I was young. Dixie Gun Works used to advertise one years ago in their catalogue. By the time I had saved up money to buy one they were sold out. Anyway I am glad I wasn’t able to get one. I would have likely severely injured myself with it. But I was thinking that it would be the ultimate shotgun though.

But in the story they had about it was that pygmies would use them to run under an elephant then plant the buttstock on the ground with the muzzle up and blast the elephant from below. Yeah pretty imaginative story telling there.
 
There was a type of gun used in the 1800's that outclasses even @Abarnes very impressive build. Shoulder fired harpoon guns launched projectiles weighing from 1.5 to 3 pounds (yes, 21,000 grains). I can't recall the powder charges but can do some digging in my electronic library.

The charges had to be a considerable amount because recoil would knock the gunman from the bow to the middle of a 30-foot-long whaling rowboat. If not handled properly, there are records of bones being broken by recoil.

See posts 64 and 65.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/the-biggest-bore-rifle.91759/page-4#post-1176703
See post number 19 and 21.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/largest-bore-ml-made.55241/#post-658260
The guns, both barrel and stock, were made from bronze to survive the saltwater environment. Bores were up to 1.25 inches. My original source and link are gone but I'm sure I have the old website info stored somewhere. I may have to search two of my older computers to find that file.

Here are the only photos of these guns I could find in a quick web search.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/76/385/brandstyle-harpoon-gun
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/antique-19th-century-whale-harpoon-gun-14-c-ae24a02a2a





 
Last edited:
There was a type of gun used in the 1800's that outclasses even @Abarnes very impressive build. Shoulder fired harpoon guns launched projectiles weighing from 1.5 to 3 pounds (yes, 21,000 grains). I can't recall the powder charges but can do some digging in my electronic library.

The charges had to be a considerable amount because recoil would knock the gunman from the bow to the middle of a 30-foot-long whaling rowboat. If not handled properly, there are records of bones being broken by recoil.

See posts 64 and 65.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/the-biggest-bore-rifle.91759/page-4#post-1176703
See post number 19 and 21.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/largest-bore-ml-made.55241/#post-658260
The guns, both barrel and stock, were made from bronze to survive the saltwater environment. Bores were up to 1.25 inches. My original source and link are gone but I'm sure I have the old website info stored somewhere. I may have to search two of my older computers to find that file.

Here are the only photos of these guns I could find in a quick web search.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/76/385/brandstyle-harpoon-gun
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/antique-19th-century-whale-harpoon-gun-14-c-ae24a02a2a





sounds like what one needs to be armed with on a trip to Walmart.
 
Maybe you should forget rifles and take up artillery?

There was a type of gun used in the 1800's that outclasses even @Abarnes very impressive build. Shoulder fired harpoon guns launched projectiles weighing from 1.5 to 3 pounds (yes, 21,000 grains). I can't recall the powder charges but can do some digging in my electronic library.

The charges had to be a considerable amount because recoil would knock the gunman from the bow to the middle of a 30-foot-long whaling rowboat. If not handled properly, there are records of bones being broken by recoil.

See posts 64 and 65.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/the-biggest-bore-rifle.91759/page-4#post-1176703
See post number 19 and 21.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/largest-bore-ml-made.55241/#post-658260
The guns, both barrel and stock, were made from bronze to survive the saltwater environment. Bores were up to 1.25 inches. My original source and link are gone but I'm sure I have the old website info stored somewhere. I may have to search two of my older computers to find that file.

Here are the only photos of these guns I could find in a quick web search.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/76/385/brandstyle-harpoon-gun
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/antique-19th-century-whale-harpoon-gun-14-c-ae24a02a2a





That makes mine look like a pea shooter
 
There was a type of gun used in the 1800's that outclasses even @Abarnes very impressive build. Shoulder fired harpoon guns launched projectiles weighing from 1.5 to 3 pounds (yes, 21,000 grains). I can't recall the powder charges but can do some digging in my electronic library.

The charges had to be a considerable amount because recoil would knock the gunman from the bow to the middle of a 30-foot-long whaling rowboat. If not handled properly, there are records of bones being broken by recoil.

See posts 64 and 65.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/the-biggest-bore-rifle.91759/page-4#post-1176703
See post number 19 and 21.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/largest-bore-ml-made.55241/#post-658260
The guns, both barrel and stock, were made from bronze to survive the saltwater environment. Bores were up to 1.25 inches. My original source and link are gone but I'm sure I have the old website info stored somewhere. I may have to search two of my older computers to find that file.

Here are the only photos of these guns I could find in a quick web search.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/76/385/brandstyle-harpoon-gun
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/antique-19th-century-whale-harpoon-gun-14-c-ae24a02a2a





This really stirs memories.
As a teenager, working in a NE museum, I found one of those harpoon guns in a storage room. These pictures verify my memory. It seemed heavy enough to help absorb a lot of recoil, but I couldn't imagine handling it- much less firing it in a bouncing whaleboat.
I found no harpoon to go with it, so imagined something more like a shorter hand-thrown version, trailing a line. Obviously, it was a bomb lance, but still a challenge to use.
 
there were stories about two bore guns but those all seem to be more story or myth than anything. One elephant hunter had a three bore double though. But even he stated it was beyond almost everyone’s ability to fire it and not get injured. More than 17,000 foot pounds of muzzle energy with it. Even with it he was only using 270 grains of black powder.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_bore
I have a Indian matchlock wall gun but the bore on it is only around 80 caliber though. It could be 1inch though as it is in really bad shape for the bore.
 
Back
Top