4 bore Bolt action

[Grumpy gumpy]

Arr is that an Imperial Cartridge Co 4 Bore made for London Guns ?

I reckon give the hole in a plank a try, it will slide forward.

That is very unusual to happen like that, as if loaded with BP & a little wadding the projectile can’t go that far in, is it a Dummy or did Imperial load Nitro for Black loads, should still be wads I suppose ?

Yes it is, it also has a small rifle primer which I found odd. I was told it was a BP load, won’t know till I pull it apart.
I was going to try an aluminium collet in two pieces because of the flare on the mouth. Just haven’t got around to it yet
Gumpy

 

[WC86]

I hope this takes off and catches like wildfire just so I can see the inevitable thread:

“.470 should be banned from buffalo hunts!”

 

[Doug Hamilton]

Could it be made? Yes.

It would be an EXTREMELY expensive project that would yield a fairly impractical firearm.

If you make it and it is made properly (weight and balance), id be willing to shoot it.

Having fired your 8 bore once, I think I'll just watch you touch off the 4 bore! ;-D.

 

[skydiver386]

Confucius say "Stupid man make mistake, but wise man learn from stupid man's mistake."

 

[Flbt]

We had Ross Seyfried hunt with us way back & if I remember correctly he had a Double 8 bore & a single 4 bore on a hunt, the 8 bore was so so in killing Buffalo but the 4 bore was devastating on them, I now wish I had taken more note of loads & ball/bullet weights but back then I wasn't that interested in old Guns !

Now his pistols I was interested in .

I remember reading about him using them on buff.
With the 4 didn’t he use round ball
And had 2 explosive shells for back up. And if I remember right he had one full attention with the round ball then loaded one of the shells and that took all the fight out of the buff.

It’s been so long since I read that article I think it was on guns and ammo.
I wish he would put out his articles in a book form.

 

[matt85]

A ball is the standard projectile for the 4-bore. With the 8-bore it depended on what you were hunting. A ball was typically used for most game but was considered inadequate for elephant, so a conical of roughly 1150-1250gr was used.

I use a 1200gr conical mold from Accurate molds. I also have a ball mold but found accuracy to be better with the conical. The recoil with the ball is much more managable though. I can fire 6-8 shots fairly easily using ball loads, while more than 4 shots using conicals will lead to lasting negative effects on my body.

 

[Doug Hamilton]

A ball is the standard projectile for the 4-bore. With the 8-bore it depended on what you were hunting. A ball was typically used for most game but was considered inadequate for elephant, so a conical of roughly 1150-1250gr was used.

I use a 1200gr conical mold from Accurate molds. I also have a ball mold but found accuracy to be better with the conical. The recoil with the ball is much more managable though. I can fire 6-8 shots fairly easily using ball loads, while more than 4 shots using conicals will lead to lasting negative effects on my body.

The 4 bore bullet that I have is conical. The man who gave it to me said that he had bored a hole in the nose, put black powder in the cavity and squeezed a .44 rimfire cartridge into the hole. I assumed he had pulled the bullet and powder before putting the shell in. He had the magazine with the article and lot of pictures including a box full of phone books with pages scattered all over. I can't remember if he used one of these explosive bullets when he took the elephant.

 

[Bill Raby]

I shoot 4 bore frequently. The 19th century descriptions of these guns are wildly exaggerated. A single shot bolt action would work just fine. A magazine fed bolt action would be ridiculous and not even close to practical. No such thing as a quick second shot with a 4 bore. In the real world you can get a second shot off just as fast with a muzzleloader.