Firing a 4 Bore rifle (My title)

https://twitter.com ^ | Nov 3, 2023 | Posted on X by @LibertyCappy

[Enterprise]

Video of firing a 4 Bore rifle. It hurts just watching it.

[Enterprise]

Do I want one? Of course! Would I fire it if I had it? Not only no, but HELL NO! It would break my collar bone, shoulder, and who knows how many others.

[null and void]

Detached retinas.

[digger48]

My uncle custom made rifles up to and including .700 Nitro Express. One really has to plant your feet right or it’ll knock you on your butt and send the rifle flying

.585 was all I could handle back when I was young and fit

[Old Student]

I used to consider myself recoil-tolerant. Not so much anymore, but dude in the video made one really bad beginner mistake... Pull the rifle in TIGHT to your shoulder. The rifle MUST NOT move against your shoulder. He didn’t do that. Back in the old days, they had padded shooting jackets for folks who used larger bore rifles. I guess folks who mostly shoot mouse guns don’t see the need... There were also strap-on recoil pads for the buttstock of the rifle. On a 4-bore, Ima think you probably need both.

[trebb]

Took me back - Dad had on of those padded jackets

[Lockbox]

Under current thinking by gun deniers, that gun would be illegal since the military does not have a four bore rifle..... isn’t that how they think?

[Roadrunner383]

Is the barrel really rifled? A lot of older black powder guns were smooth bores. I saw a 4-bore at a gun show long ago. The quarter pound lead ball was impressive, but I did not have the urge or the money to buy the gun.

[weezel]

Absolutely! That guy didnt look to be holding it tight to his shoulder at all. Made me hurt seeing that shoulder pushed back when he touched it off.

I wouldnt shoot it for it and a truckload of ammo.

[muir_redwoods]

If my mental math is correct that bullet was about five ounces of lead! I don’t think I ever wanted to shoot something that much.

[kawhill]

Would that be classified as an “assault rifle”? Maybe by the shooter it would.

[Paal Gulli]

"Is the barrel really rifled? ...."

Did you not notice the word "rifle" in the headline?

This is the pointy end of a Ken Owen 4-bore. I think I read that Ken has stepped away from the bench but his company (River City Rifles, Moscow, TN) still makes them ... one at a time. He made a few a while back were featured in all the gun magazines because they were decorated with mastadon ivory inlays (obviously never something Walmart is going to carry).

And I think there still are at least a couple of builders (Giles Whittome and Schroeder & Hetzendorfer) making (even larger) 2-bores (about a 1.32-caliber*). So regardless what JD Jones would have you believe, his puny little .959 is far from the largest sporting rifle cartridge ever made (not to mention his rifles weighed 110-lbs, and only three were built, which rather tortures the definition of a "sporting" rifle).

Today these YUGE doubles mostly are built as novelties for collectors. They generally were never the first choice, even for professional hunting guides (with the possible exception of a few hard men in the late 19th Century). They sometimes were referred to as "brush guns" because if a PH kept one at all, it was as a last resort. If a client botched a shot and the wounded animal managed to get into the underbrush, the PH was obligated to go after it and finish it off, both to end its suffering and to protect subsequent unsuspecting hunters from meeting up with a wounded and enraged dangerous game animal. Since that all but guaranteed a close encounter of the first kind, he wanted a gun that would knock the animal down, then stomp it for falling.

* Originally the caliber of a "bore" rifle wasn't standardized because it could vary depending on the specific gravity of the lead alloy the builder had selected for that gun. So the customer was also beholding to his gun's builder for his ammunition.

[Mathews]

Oh Baby!!!! Big MFing Gun Go BOOM!!!

[Paal Gulli]

Here’s a series of YouTube videos from Stolzer & Sons gunsmiths on the double-deuce, the 2-bore double rifle:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQX9MsRl-1XtBy14K8GoWHQP0KDLDQWQA

[kawhill]

And to think that W. D. M. “Karamojo” Bell used a Mauser 98 chambered in 7 by 57 Mauser to kill most of his 1,000 elephants. He was a good enough hunter he could get close enough to the animals for a brain shot.

[wardaddy]

I think October country made a zero bore that shot a pound ball

In the 90s