Finally got my W.J. Jeffery 8-bore shooting!

[matt85]

A little while back I purchased a Jeffery 8-bore off the classifieds on this wonderful forum. I picked up an 85 caliber 900gr round ball mold from ballmoulds.com and a 1200gr conical mold from accuratemolds.com. Luckily I happen to have a pound of Blue Dot and I tracked down a package of 209 primers. The final ingredients needed were brass and a set of loading dies... which showed up Friday from RMC!

First thing Saturday morning, I loaded up one cartridge with a 900gr ball and one cartridge with a 1200gr conical. Then proceeded to fire both into the marsh in front of my house... I love it! This gun reminds me exactly of Cal's paradox gun I shot years ago, that made me want an 8-bore so badly. The round balls are mild enough to plink with and are suitable for less-experienced people shoot the gun. The conical bullets produce some heavy recoil but not as sharp as the 600 NE or as extreme as the 4-bore. Think of it as a 600 NE with a slower recoil impulse.

Saturday evening, I took the gun to the neighbor's place to let them try it with ball loads. It was a big success as the recoil (and blast) is enough to be impressive but not so much as to injure the inexperienced shooters.

I will update this thread with some pictures when I get around to shooting at some targets.

-Matt

 

[Sarg]

Thanks for posting , Id love a 8 Bore rifle myself, I have two new rifled barrels & a action only to build one but may not get there yet.

I love shooting my 8ga Shotgun, makes you feel important even when missing stuff !

 

[matt85]

Did a quick test of some basic loads in the yard today. It's below freezing out and I may have had a little too much fun at the neighbor's house last night so I only fired 4 cartridges. Distance was around 45 yards. The old table I was shooting at was frozen and splintering, which ripped the target up and made it hard to find the holes. I will set up something better for future testing.

First load was a ball over 70gr of Blue Dot (fiber wads for filler). These grouped about 6 inches high and about 6 inches apart with the right barrel hitting left and the left barrel hitting right (crossing). I think if I reduce this load a little, it might get the shots closer together.

Second load was a conical over 69gr of Blue Dot (same fiber wad filler). The right barrel hit near perfect, perhaps just an inch left of point of aim. The left barrel hit in line with the right but about 5 inches high. Picture below is of these shots.

(first shot is to the left of the 0 and my finger is pointed at the second shot.)

 

[degoins]

Are there pictures of the rifle somewhere that I obviously missed?!!!

 

[matt85]

I haven't taken any pictures of the gun itself, but I have some provided by the previous owner.

In the picture of the ledger, the gun is number 2982.

 

[RR 314]

Man, what an awesome piece of history! Great that it is a functional piece of history. Good stuff.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Stewart Granger would be proud ! Now, let’s go hunt a hippopotamus bull on land !

 

[ActionBob]

The round balls are mild enough to plink with

Matt, only you would refer to "plinking" and an 8 bore together in the same paragraph

Congratulations on getting that beauty shooting

 

[degoins]

I haven't taken any pictures of the gun itself, but I have some provided by the previous owner.

In the picture of the ledger, the gun is number 2982.


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Magnificent!!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[PerH]

Excellent saloon gun you got there .

 

[AZDAVE]

Good to see you got it up and shooting. The nitro for black blue dot loads are the way to go as far as recoil management. If you shoot a full charge of "Holy Black" you step into another realm of recoil.

look forward to see how it shoots for you. Congratz

 

[matt85]

Good to see you got it up and shooting. The nitro for black blue dot loads are the way to go as far as recoil management. If you shoot a full charge of "Holy Black" you step into another realm of recoil.

look forward to see how it shoots for you. Congratz

Once I have a good system for cleaning the gun, I will shoot some black powder cartridges out of it. At the very least I would like to try the original regulating load of a ball over 10 drams of powder.

 

[Daniel Cary]

When Cabella's opened in Dundee they used to carry some cool things.
An 8 Bore Dummy sits next to the .500 on the mantel for yrs. now.

 

[PerH]

Just look out for pink elephants in the weekend mist now , but don’t worry they don’t like black powder charges

 

[PCC600]

I haven't taken any pictures of the gun itself, but I have some provided by the previous owner.

In the picture of the ledger, the gun is number 2982.


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And yours for £25-00 !

 

[matt85]

Stewart Granger would be proud ! Now, let’s go hunt a hippopotamus bull on land !

It will likely take a couple years for me to put together the money. But that is exactly my plan for this gun!

 

[frog stealer]

About time Matt! Thanks for sharing, any idea what velocity you are getting with round balls?

 

[matt85]

About time Matt! Thanks for sharing, any idea what velocity you are getting with round balls?

The standard speed is around 1500fps for this cartridge. Once I find loads that properly regulate, I will run them over the chronograph. The balls look like they should regulate fine with speed adjustments. But I suspect the 1200gr conical bullets aren't going to regulate. I will try an 1100gr conical and a 1300gr conical to see if either of those regulate better.

 

[Daniel Cary]

I haven't taken any pictures of the gun itself, but I have some provided by the previous owner.

In the picture of the ledger, the gun is number 2982.


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That's a beautiful photo of the stock alone. Many Congrats!

Unreal.

 

[8BoreBoswell]

A little while back I purchased a Jeffery 8-bore off the classifieds on this wonderful forum. I picked up an 85 caliber 900gr round ball mold from ballmoulds.com and a 1200gr conical mold from accuratemolds.com. Luckily I happen to have a pound of Blue Dot and I tracked down a package of 209 primers. The final ingredients needed were brass and a set of loading dies... which showed up Friday from RMC!

First thing Saturday morning, I loaded up one cartridge with a 900gr ball and one cartridge with a 1200gr conical. Then proceeded to fire both into the marsh in front of my house... I love it! This gun reminds me exactly of Cal's paradox gun I shot years ago, that made me want an 8-bore so badly. The round balls are mild enough to plink with and are suitable for less-experienced people shoot the gun. The conical bullets produce some heavy recoil but not as sharp as the 600 NE or as extreme as the 4-bore. Think of it as a 600 NE with a slower recoil impulse.

Saturday evening, I took the gun to the neighbor's place to let them try it with ball loads. It was a big success as the recoil (and blast) is enough to be impressive but not so much as to injure the inexperienced shooters.

I will update this thread with some pictures when I get around to shooting at some targets.

-Matt

Hi Matt I have an 8 bore Boswell we have regulated a few 8 bore rifles. I have lots of loads and data and molds. We have a 8 bore preasure gun .