4 bore

[Hednign]

I while back I managed to buy this rifle from a friend of mine. As you can see its not exactly a .22....... Its a caliber 1.

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6079/4bore.jpg
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2761/4bore2.jpg

Im going to order a mold for it from Jeff Tanner. My question to you guys is if it would be wise to get a belted round ball mold for this one. And I would like to get a conical mold for it aswell. But I cant find anyone that makes conicals with this size.....

[bowfin]

Diameters of 4 bore guns vary dramatically. I don't mean by .005", but by as much as .060", depending on which maker or manufacturere was making them and their opinions on what constituted a proper 4 bore. I found this out while having cases made for some 4 bore bullets that I bought off of Gunbroker.

You might find a 4 bore mold, but there is also a chance that 4 bore slug it casts won't fit your 4 bore rifle.

[excess650]

What you need to do is find the bore and groove dimensions, and check the rifling twist. I suspect that its going to need a THICK patch with a round ball.

A belted round ball would most likely have been a 2 groove barrel. Conicals from such a beast wouldn't be fun to shoot. Because of the amount of drop in the stock, its going to be unpleasant with a PRB.

NEI lists .970", 1.00" and 1.022". I WOULD NOT invest in a mold that drops a 4.5oz conical to shoot from that "Jaeger".

[stubshaft]

With that much drop in the stock, it doesn't look as though it was even made to fire from the shoulder.

[MtGun44]

OWW!!! And that was just thinking about shooting that thing.

Very deep rifling will be tricky to seal, will need a thick patch. I think you want
the lightest projectile you can find to start, so a round ball is it. Also, check the
twist. For RB many old guns were 1 in 70 or 1 in 80 twist, so like half a turn in a long
barrel. If it is super slow like this it won't stabilize a conical anyway so save you money
and shoulder.

Bill

[onondaga]

A good clean and a brushed greasing before a melted 75:25 sulfur/graphite casting of the muzzle isn't impossible and would give you a real measurement to go by. A washer, attached to some thick wire and a wad of cotton will stop the bore a couple inches down and the plug can be poured over it and pulled out with the wire. the plug only needs to be about 1/2 inch thick to get a good measurement, don't fill the muzzle.

I'd plan on using something like thin bed blanketing for patching to fill the rifling. Compress the patching moderately with a micrometer to get a thickness measurement of the patching material when compressed. Double that thickness measurement and subtract it from the groove to groove diameter of the bore and that will be your ball diameter measurement with that patch material.

The moderate compression with the micrometer is a feel thing, but is necessary to compensate for the different diameters between groove to groove and land to land diameters. Patching thinner than blanket material will likely give you hissing shots with gas jetting every time as the rifling wouldn't fill with thin, stiff patching. Get an old army blanket!!! That is probably just what was meant for it.

Let me take this a step farther and give you an example:

Say your sulfur casting measured 1.000 inches land to land and 1.060 groove to groove.
I measured my mil. surplus blanket at .032" with moderate compression.
1.060 minus .064 = .996" ball diameter for a pretty tight fit. I'd likely go with .990" ball diameter so it wouldn't be real hard to load.

I helped do this for a small cannon with about a 1.5 " rifled bore. Was fun.

For a good sporting load I'd try a charge of 2F that weighs about half the weight of the ball or less if the rifle is sound.

Gary

[Hednign]

Thanks guys... Thats what I wanted to hear. Ill go for a rb. I think this bore is slightly under 1", so before sending a 4 bore request to Jeff Tanner Ill do a casting of the bore and send him. Or like Gary says, figure it out my self. Ill be back with pics and flicks when I test shoot the old pile of iron. Iv read that they did use conical bullets in them. 2000 grs. 800 grs powder. Must have hurt badly.

Stock is not the original, doesent look like it is anyway. This banana stock would give you a good Tyson hug. Or maybe someone thought it would be a good idea to transport the recoil arround your shoulder. I could become a flincher after this....

[Ohio Rusty]

There were alot of 4 thru 8 bore guns used for Aftica hunting. Somewhere I have an article about large bore guns just like yours being used for elephants.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[excess650]

The shape of the stock woudl accenutate muzzle flip, so it wouldn't be pleasant.

Are there any markings on the lock or barrel? Photos?

[Hednign]

The only marking Iv found is a stamp. It just says 1824...if I remember correctly. I dont think its that old. Ill examine it a little better when I get back home later this week. Would be nice to see the article about these rifles. Iv read somewhere that they used them as an early "thump" guns aswell. Shooting small explosives.

Wouldnt it be fun to shoot a MLAIC competition with that one??!!! I might need som TLC after 13 shots with it though. I could make hollow balls for it, but its a pain gluing them together and all that. I think Ill hide behind something when I fire the first shot. Looks damn solid, but you never know.

[nanuk]

Have you posted pics of this rifle somewhere before?

I have an inkling I've seen these pics before......

De jevu

[nanuk]

A good clean and a brushed greasing before a melted 75:25 sulfur/graphite casting of the muzzle isn't impossible and would give you a real measurement to go by. A washer, attached to some thick wire and a wad of cotton will stop the bore a couple inches down and the plug can be poured over it and pulled out with the wire. the plug only needs to be about 1/2 inch thick to get a good measurement, don't fill the muzzle.
Gary



Gary: What a great idea for even a cerrosafe cast of a muzzleloader

thanks for that!

[Hednign]

Yes, I might have posted some pics before. I think I asked if anyone knew what it was. Its very hard to find the origin of the damn thing.

[nanuk]

Hednign: Yeah... I now kind of remember that...

Darn "Oldtimers" disease

[frankenfab]

I while back I managed to buy this rifle from a friend of mine. As you can see its not exactly a .22....... Its a caliber 1.

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6079/4bore.jpg
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2761/4bore2.jpg



That is really cool!:holysheep

[Hednign]

Uh...I read a warning dated like 120 years ago that you should not fire to many rounds over a short perioud of time. Some shooters suffered from something I would guess was a concussion. Not gonna happen anyhow, Ill just test the damn thing. I promise to give you a sit rep when it happens......

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Personally that looks like a sure candidate for the simple Round Ball. Cast a RB of WW and you can hunt any critter still walking this planet. Thousands of the Big 5 African beasties were liquidated with the lowly 4 bore RB combination.
I know for fact a WW .685 RB with penetrate every critter I have launched it at. This was the first projectile fired from a 12 bore that I know of that would succesfully penetrate 6 meter + croc neck armor every time without failure. I cannot imagine why you would need more than a caliber 1.00 RB for anything short of Mastadon or Blue Whale.

[baker1425]

I cannot imagine why you would need more than a caliber 1.00 RB for anything short of Mastadon or Blue Whale.

Well said, I heard mastadon was making a comeback. :holysheep

I'd hope you'd get some video of that artillery going off the first time. that would be awesome.

[Hednign]

Ill tape the test shooting allright.... Im sligthly worried about the stock design though. But Im sure it wount kill me, and not hurt me too bad either. Some pain is expected. I think I have to go and get some coarse powder. At the time I only have swiss no 3 and 4. Wano 2p and 3p. Wano 1p would be better I guess. Or some "blasting" powder. I need to replace the nipple before firing it too. Original nipple would send the hammer sky high with those kind of loads I guess. I fired an old percussion rifle with a bad nipple a few weeks ago, and my face looked like a coal miners ass.....well, a coal miners ass might be one of the clean areas though.