Show us your big bore rifles

[bigsmoke]

Well, I have been thinking about starting a thread like this for a while.  Saw the subject of show us your squirrel rifle, so thought the time would be right.  I will start it off with my first one.



Rigby style .69 caliber rifle with a 34" 1 1/4 barrel, octagon to round.  L & R lock, Allen Foundry trigger, breechplug and buttplate.  The stock is maple finished with chromium trioxide.  The front sight is a T/C Hawken bead sight and the rear sight is a 3 blade express sight.

The hunting load is 200 grains Ffg GOEX, .678 r/b, Ox Yoke pre-lubed .70-79 caliber .015 patch  and an Ox Yoke 14 ga pre-lubed cushion wad.  That gives it about 1,800 fps + at 50 feet.  Set the chrono any closer than that and you get false readings.

John

[xring2245]

Elephant gun???  I shoot a .69 cal. in the N-SSA and even loaded down, the potential for power is there.

[Robby]

Mine is a .69 too.

Robby

[xring2245]

Mine is a .69 too.

Robby

I would like to know a little more about this gun.  It looks interesting.

Thanks,
James

[Daryl]

Nice rifles guys. The 1/2 round is great, however I really like the lines of yours Robby.  Well done. The lock's on the wrong side, of course. Nice just the same.

I'm on my wife's mac computer- my desktop started working slower than dialup -nasty slow - can't upload my .69, but it's been here to often anyway.

Good to see more 14 bores-!!!!!

[Robby]

Thanks Daryl! 
Xring, It is my interpretation of an English sporting rifle. The stock blank is from Dunlap, the barrel is from the Gun Works, both of these outfits are great people to work with!! L&R correct handed lock , slightly modified lock, hook breech, steel hardware. My first attempt at checkering. It shoots real nice off hand, being very consistent and accurate. Off the bench, Well it is manageable .
Robby

[plastikosmd]

do slug guns count?

[Kermit]

I'd say yes. I didn't see any limiting rules in the original post!

Bring 'em on.

[SuperCracker]

I'd say yes. I didn't see any limiting rules in the original post!

Bring 'em on.

Well, it's not quite a rifle...........................YET. It will be soon! 

Pair of 12 Bore rifle barrels from Oregon blanks profiled to match the barrels on an original 12Bore DR. Still in the accumulating parts stage right now. As soon as I get done with my current project I'll be getting serious on this. With a little luck I'll be able to take a Buff or two with it in 2014!

My favorite view. That's a .490RB in front of it.   

[hanshi]

Wow!  When talk turns to large bore rifles, that's EXACTLY what you mean!  The largest rifle I ever owned was a .58 and it's no longer in my stable.  I can't think of ANYTHING I do that would require those huge cannons, and Robby, that is a beautiful and wondrous instrument you have built.

The largest I own is a .50 and a .54.  This is my .54 US M1841 Mississippi Rifle.


A .54 York/early Lancaster hybrid "youths rifle"; I'm a little guy.

[maudite]

Here s two of mine a 62cal  Baker and a 58 cal carbine

[bigsmoke]

Well, it's not quite a rifle...........................YET. It will be soon! 

Pair of 12 Bore rifle barrels from Oregon blanks profiled to match the barrels on an original 12Bore DR.

  And when it grows up, it might look like this.  4 Bore double with a .530 in the barrel.

[bigsmoke]

Sorry, didn't mean to be a try at one ups man ship there, but your upcoming 12 bore surely did need some company.
4 bore is the biggest I have ever wanted to go with.  The tubes were also from The Gun Works/Oregon Rifle Barrel Co.  Have known Joe and Suzy for more years than I want to admit, and have always found them to be great people.  I always turned to them for the 8 bore and 4 bore barrels I have needed.  I remember several years ago at the Cascade Mountain Man Gun Show Joe had his display set up and on the end of a row of tables he had a 2 bore barrel.  For some reason, that just intimidated the heck out of me.  2 bore = 1 5/16".  Round ball is about 8 ounces or 3,500 grains.  Then the next year, he had a rifle made out of one of those barrels.  Just flat scarry!!  I will shoot a 4 bore with a 400 - 450 grain charge, but no way would I shoot a 2 bore.  I shot a 3 bore rifle once and that pursuaded me 4 bore was my limit.  That one was a conical.  Ufda!!  Big whallop!!  Even with a 200 grain charge.
Shane, what are you doing for the breech plug set on the 12 bore?  Track used to sell a set that was made by a guy in California, if I recall correctly.  I ordered up a set several years ago, but have not ever seen them delivered.  Probably 10 years ago.  I think the fellow was having some family health problems at the time, and no doubt lost info in the meantime.  Of course, I have moved also, but he had a few years in the meantime to take care of business.
John

[Daryl]

I think anymore, I'd not shoot a gun larger than about 10 bore.  They'd "wear" heavily on this old tired body.

[wattlebuster]

And I thought a 12 was big. Goes to show what a redneck knows

[bigsmoke]

I think anymore, I'd not shoot a gun larger than about 10 bore.  They'd "wear" heavily on this old tired body.

You know, I am starting to feel that way myself.  Only 10 years ago, I was all for it.  Bring it on, I'd give any of em a try (except for a two bore).  Now, not so much.  Heck, even last year, I finally decided to sell off my little 8 bore double.  I hadn't shot it in quite a while, and had no intention of.  Might as well get 'er gone.  I don't think the fellow who bought it has given it a try either.  I take my 14 bore out occassionally, but really prefer the .62.  Growning old sure has some limitations. 
John

[Harnic]

My big bore is a 58 flint Hawken, but the largest I fired was a 4-bore flint.  It rang my 29 year old bell pretty good!  No way this old frame could handle it now, that would be suicide! 

[SuperCracker]

Sorry, didn't mean to be a try at one ups man ship there,

Don't worry. I didn't take it that way. That 4 Bore is AWESOME.    Do you have any pics to load of the whole thing?   

I want to take the 12 to Either Argentina or Australia in 14 for Buff. So I have time to go slow and do it right. After that it's time to start working on Africa for a cape Buff and whatever else I can scrape/beg/borrow the money for. If, by some miracle I was able to arrange the capital for a cull elephant hunt I would want to build a 4 bore double.

Right now, the plan for the 12 is a Mantonish/Mortimeresque Flint DR styled after a Mortimer flint 6 bore DR that was at Puglisi a while back. I'm planning on machining recessed plugs and fabricating a standing breech myself. I'm using one of the store bought "patent" breeches on a gun I'm building now and was less than impressed with it. It would have been easier to just make one from scratch IMO.

I LOVE double rifles and the guns used in the early days of the Safari. I also have a big crush on the European sporting guns and doubles. I have a lot of builds in that vein I eventually want to do.

[bigsmoke]

Here is one of it.  I will have to look a little deeper to find some more.

The trip to Argentina sounds great!!  Hunt buff during the day, drink Argentine Malbec wine and tango at night.  A person could just flat wear himself out in short order.   I understand that besides the water buff in Australia, another interesting thing to hunt is "brushies" or brush bulls, ferral cattle in other words.  I seem to recall they are found in the northern part of the country.  Worth checking on, I'd think.

[hanshi]

Oh, bigsmoke; that an astonishingly fine looking double.  Yep, it will do ya'.

[SuperCracker]

Here is one of it.  I will have to look a little deeper to find some more.

The trip to Argentina sounds great!!  Hunt buff during the day, drink Argentine Malbec wine and tango at night.  A person could just flat wear himself out in short order.   I understand that besides the water buff in Australia, another interesting thing to hunt is "brushies" or brush bulls, ferral cattle in other words.  I seem to recall they are found in the northern part of the country.  Worth checking on, I'd think.

Very nice. The huge barrels don't overpower the other architecture of the gun.

I know all about the Brush Bulls.  I think, statistically, they're supposed to be more dangerous than the Buff. I found a good, "roughing it" type outfitter in Australia who was able to arrange for powder in camp.  The issue is that, for roughly the same money I can

- Go to Australia and spend 5 days getting a buff and a bull from a tent in the outback

or

- Go to Argentina and spend about 7 or 8 days and get a Buff, 2 Red stags a Black Buck, a nice Boar and spend a day shooting Partridge off the Pampas. Then spend the night in a nice lodge eating Argentinian beef and getting served wine by some smoking hot Argentine server girl.

choices choices.  lol   (if you're somehow seeing this honey, the girls are just waitresses and I'm not going to be in BA, I promise.  Love you)


I want to eventually do both anyway. So it really is a difficult choice. Plus, you have to factor in the fact that there may be a finite number of days left that you can go do that in Australia.

[bigsmoke]

Shane,
I'd take Argentina.  Especially if there is a possibility that things could shut down before you were able to get there after Australia.  Not that there is any problem with tenting it in the outback, but gosh, that SA trip sounds just fantastic.  And carne asada with Malbec served by a hot little honey?  Whoo, where do we sign up?
I always thought that the stereotypical 4 bore was just an ugly brute of a gun.  Typically with a 22-24" barrel and thick, thick, thick.  Just no style.  The advantage was better maneuverability and muzzle weight to combat the recoil.  I prefer the longer barrel, these are either 28 or 30", but I think they were 28.  The rifle still weighed in at about 20 pounds, anyway.  For some reason, I never wanted to shoot it with more than 300 grains of Fg.  That was enough.

[Daryl]

Of course, F. Selous used 4 bore smoothbores with round balls in Africa on Elephant.  They were single shot, shortened Dutch  caplock fowlers. Their weights would have been not much over 12 pounds, if that heavy.  Selous once stated, that the 4 bores ruined his accurate rifle shooting for the rest of his life.

[bigsmoke]

Darly,
I have not really studied Selious all that closely, but wasn't that remark made a bit after his gun bearer accidently double loaded the gun?  Seems like that is what I read.  Those guns could certainly do damage on both ends.  Broken, dislocated shoulders, detatched retinas, and other fun physical problems are just a few of the maladies that could arise from letting the gun get a running start at you.
John

[Bob Roller]

The big bore rifle is an intriguing thing but were they ever really needed?
Didn't an African hunter by the name of Bell take down everything with a
7MM? A 28 caliber isn't any big bore that I am familiar with. How about
the rest of you out there??

Bob Roller