Truly big bore smoothie

[squirrelgourmet]

I was looking at auction arms and they had a underhammer smoothbore 4 bore :shocking: for $750.00. It handles a 350gr charge :shocking: Have any of you fired a 8+ bore gun? If so please share your experiences. If had'nt just bought a new toy i'd consider getting one (here I come africa). I think my new smoothie 56 will be plenty of gun for my neck of the woods though. eace:

 

[rayb]

i have fired an 8 guage exactly once. A fellow shooter let me fire his at a trap shoot last fall. He was a good sized fellow, and the gun was a bit big overall for me. (that's my excuse for missing the clay bird, & i'm sticking to it.) He consistantly shoot 25's in the matches while i was there. The gun was not unpleasant to shoot. It was a single barrel gun, constructed specifically for trap shooting.

rayb

 

[Arkie]

350 Gr?!?!?!?! :youcrazy: HOLY manure!!! That thing will kill on both ends. :crackup:

 

[FireMaker]

A friend of mine in Wyoming is a blackpowder builder. He built a 4 bore for a guy and had photos of the person doing the test shoot. Would have been nice for a time elapsed photo showing the guy going on his back.

 

[squirrelgourmet]

350 grains is light, F.C. Selous had a pair of Dutch made 4 bore guns that he used 16-18 drams (437-500gr) of powder in front of a 1750gr ball :youcrazy:. Selous was also quoted as saying "They kicked most frightfully, and in my case the punishment I recieved from these guns has affected my nerves to such an extent as to have materially influenced my shooting ever since, and I am heartily sorry I ever had anything to do with them."

I don't think I will complain about the recoil my .54 puts out when I used the 450 gr conicals. Still I think a safari with one of these beast would be amazing, doing something no one has done for probably 120+ years

 

In the 50's or 60's, Turner Kirkland went on Safari with a 6 bore Rathbone, shooting Elephant and other worthwile beasts.
: I doubt more than a handful including Ross Seyfried have fired a 4 bore recently.
: His articles in Rifle magazine on the big beasts are always very good reading.
: I believe the largest he's used on North American game recently are 12 bore and 16 bore rifles- singles, I believe.
: My buddy Keith hunts with an 11 bore every year. Judge the rifle as using conicals, and it is a true 10 bore rifle.
: I shot an 8 bore double with it's 975gr. bullets back in the 70's. It spun me(190lbs.-6'1") like a weathercock. I wasn't quite ready for that big a push. - HA! - Push :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
: I regularly shoot 500gr. bullets at 2,100fps and think they kick a bit. The 8 bore kicks a bit more!- HAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Java Man]

I saw an 8 bore flinlock rifle in a store near Toledo a little over a year ago. The owner had taken it to Africa that year (2003), and took several head of game including a cape buff, using round balls. It was cool. :RO:

 

[Nightwind]

Java, Gary practically made that thing from scratch! He was nice enough to ask me if I wanted to try 'n shoot it. I was dumb enough to say yes. If I recollect right, he was using 225 grains of 2f Goex. It was during the summer and bruised the heck outa' my shoulder! But, a beautiful gun it was!!!

 

I have an 8 guage sxs that I use often for clays. Used it on geese and grouse. I use light loads in it though as I have no need for heavy loads. For clays I use 80g F and 1 1/2 oz shot. same load most guys use in a 12g. On geese I use 100g f and 1 3/4oz #2 shot. I have a RB mould for it (.790) but have not used RB in it yet. If memory serves, I believe the .790 ball is about 770 grains.

 

[Wes/Tex]

If you're really into big Booms!, check with john and Linda at October Country. They build single shot rifles using the Forsythe rifling twist, 1-104"!! The guns can be ordered in bores from .62" to .94", that's a 4-bore in anybody's yard. They also build a double percussion 8-bore, complete with photo of some dude with a dead lion at his feet...just where he landed!! Wow!!, you'd have to revive me with a lot of Henry McKenna and nickname me "Skid Mark"!!!!!! :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[robinghewitt]

It handles a 350gr charge :shocking:

Hot Dickerty :what: I only put 275 in my wall gun :thumbsup:

 

[Java Man]

Nightwind,

Yeah, that was a cool piece. I would have liked to shoot it, ONCE! My .58 fullstock flint Hawken will take anything I need to wory about. For really big stuff, I'd just use a minnie instead of a RB. :m2c:

 

[squirrelgourmet]

Some day if I get rich i'll get one of those october country double 8's but realistically a Smoothbore 4 bore is in my range at 750.00. William Cotton Oswell used a double 10 bore smoothie for his adventures in Afica. For him, being in range meant being 20-30 paces away from the beast. I think he must have been very crazy or very confident, that is too close to something that could stomp you into a mudhole. At that range I think I would only want a 8 or 4 bore.

 

Shop around. I paid $800cad ($600us) for my original sxs 8g in EXC condition. If it's a double perc you want, originals can still be had for reasonable prices