4 gauge shotgun??? What???

I've seen 4 gauge shotguns but never had the pleasure of firing one. Before cordite was introduced they were the choice of African hunters who wanted the ultimate in stopping power. They may also have been used by market hunters in North American around the turn of the century. I saw one in England a few years ago and it was meant for use on safari.
 
Some market hunters used 4 ga guns to sluice entire resting flocks of ducks and geese on the water with one shot. Often,these were mounted to the boat and resembled small cannon more than shoulder arms.

Others were shoulder fired, and banned about 100 years ago from sporting use,along with anything else of more than 10 gauge.
 
Hmmm...

I've heard of 4-bore and even 2-bore RIFLES, but those haven't been in production for almost a hundred years, if I'm not mistaken.
 
Punt Gun

I believe that is the term for the small howitzer used in the manner Dave decribed.

I cannot *imagine* putting one to my *shoulder* and firing it. I was once kicked in the thigh by a quarterhorse...I'll bet it would be something like that. Can you imagine the flinch you'd develop?

Mike
 
Punt Guns

Punt guns are still legal in and are still used in England. Shooting Sportsman magazine had an article on them several years ago. Seems the gun is mounted in the bow of a small boat and the entire boat is aimed at rafts of ducks. Real sporting:(

Wonder if those russian 4 GA guns are used for grenades, like the US M79?

Geoff Ross

[Edited by K80Geoff on 02-23-2001 at 09:59 AM]
 
The KS-23 series come with spigot attachments for launching grenades (using blanks). Similiar attachments have been available for 12 gauge shotguns. However, I haven't seen a hull for the KS-23 which contains its own explosive payload.
 
I've fired a 10 gauge ONCE and only ONCE. I had nasty bruises for weeks. I can't imagine what would happen to my poor peewny little body parts should I shoot a 4.
 
I'm looking at an article in G&A from last year about one Giles Whittome, who makes exceedingly large firearms in England. His black powder 4 bore (which is rifled) throws an 1880 grain projectile. If the dinosaurs come back, a 4 bore would be a good camp gun...
 
Saw a punt gun at the Harrahs Museum in Reno when I was really young and impressionable. Longest thing I had ever seen.
Few years later when I was not as young but still impressionable there was a tavern by Weston, MO which had a 4 gauge shotgun hanging on the wall. Simply amazin' how big the hole in the end of the barrel was.
In both instances was told that they were used for market hunting.
And no the thought of holding and firing either one did not intrigue me.

nitedeacon
 
Don't the English 4 ga. guns weigh 25 pounds or more? I think the last time I read that was in the G&A article bobs1066 referred to. In any case, I still don't long to shoot one. John
 
A fellow once brought a 4 Bore rifle to my range. He allowed me to fire it three times. Why 3? Because after the third shot, nausea overcame me. I was seriously bruised and flinched for months. Yikes!
 
Saw an article yesterday, I believe it was in American Shooter, about the shotguns of England. They talked about the 4 Bore and how it is still used in England. Any gun of .50 caliber is banned for civilians in the US so the 10 guage is as big as we'll see. The guy in the article has built a custom 1 Bore magnum. They show a picture of the shell he is stuffing in it, it looks like a stick of dynomite, and yes these guns are fired from the shoulder, pics are in the magazine.
 
Minor correction CD1

"Any gun of .50 caliber is banned for civilians in the US so the 10 guage is as big as we'll see. "

You're mixing your categories. Any *rifle* over .50 is a destructive device, but even a 12 ga is .729 and 10 ga shotguns are only the max for *hunting* but smoothbores over 10 ga aren't destructive devices.
 
My apologies for the error, I was attempting to paraphrase the article. The 4 guage they showed being fired from the shoulder looked huge, the total length of the gun may have been more that 6 feet. I'll see if I can post a pic tonight.
 
There was an incident

at last year's Vintager shoot where a gunner touched off both barrels of a 4-bore. He was shooting a hammergun and made the mistake of cocking both hammers. An old rule says fire each barrel indedpendently or, at least, pull the rear trigger first. There's a video of the blasts. The shooter remained standing but was twirled around and hit an observed in the head with the gun. Bloodied him, too. Word had it that this was the first recorded incident of a gunner still standing after lighting off both barrels of a 4-bore. Selous reportedly did the same while on horseback in southern Africa and was knocked to the ground. If I can, I'll post the loads commonly used, but do remember that they are ferocious.
 
More 4-Bore

I erred in my last post. Mr. John Miller actually was shooting a 4-bore rifle when he dropped both hammers. Nevertheless, here's what was inside the barrels of his 24-pound undelever hammergun: 3,000 grains of lead, launched by 730 grains of F blackpowder. Think about that load for a moment.
 
About a coon's age ago at Ft. Knox, I was told that you could roll a Sheridan if it was moving across a slope & you fired a 157mm conventional round uphill. I expect the gentleman with the both-barrels-go-at-once 4 bore had a similar experience....
 
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