4-Bore Elephant Gun Ballistics?

H

HankB

New member
I've been reading "A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa" by F.C. Selous, based on his experiences in Africa in the 1870's. At that time, he was using a muzzle loading elephant gun of Dutch manufacture that fired a four ounce ball, "hardened with zinc and quicksilver," that he apparently charged with handfulls of powder, amounting to "fifteen or twenty" drachms.

So...a dram - or drachm - is 60 grains in apothecaries' weight,or 27 1/3 grains in avoirdupois weight. Any idea of which Selous would have been using in the 1870's?

Any idea of the ballistics of this monster rifle?

And why would quicksilver - that's mercury - be used to harden the lead ball? I thought mercury amalgam was softer than pure lead?

Recoil must have been stout - especially when one of his gunbearers put a second charge and second ball on top of the original charge and original ball, and he unwittingly fired the whole mess at once!
 
My 8th Edition of Cartridges of the World shows a load for the 4-bore rifle with a round or conical ball from ~1250 to 1880 grains propelled by 12 to 14 drams (325 to 380 grains) of black powder, with a muzzle velocity of up to 1500 fps. OUCH! That one would hurt on both ends.
As for the quicksilver, it was intended to soften the zinc, making it easier to alloy with the lead.

[Edited by SDC on 05-07-2001 at 05:35 PM]
 
Seems I heard once that Selous' double 4-bore did a double discharge (both barrels at once) on him one time -- dislocated his shoulder, lacerated his cheekbone, knocked him down, and the rifle flew through air. The elephant was VERY dead on the spot. He apparently had a very bad flinch after that. John Taylor recounts a similar experience with a .600 Nitro Express in his book "Pondoro."
 
At what point does it become like hugging a nuclear bomb while "pushing the button"? After a certain amount of recoil/energy, you have to decide to mount the thing on a tank.
 
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