Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders 1st 2 bore sporting rifle to be auctioned off.

Ken G. ("BigDog" on the Nitro Express site) contacted me some years ago on N.E. site. He said he's seen one of my 4 bore rifles and was very impressed. He asked me if I could build him a 2 bore sporting rifle. At first I thought he was kidding. He was not.

I did some research and as far as I could determine, it had never been done in all history. there are 2 bore wall guns and some Whaling guns that were made 150 to 250 years ago, but as far as a true "sporting rifle" I wasn't able to find any documentation of one ever being made anywhere at any time.

That's not to say one wasn't. It's just saying I was not able to find any record of one.

So I talked to Ken and said I'd do it for him, but we'd be learning as we go because there were no patters for me to follow. So I agreed and we started the project a few months later.

Sadly Ken passes away a while back. Some of his collection is now being auctioned off my Rock Island Auction Co. Here is the link.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...ong-2-bore-back-action-percussion#detail

I am sure some of you folks remember my posting of the pictures of work in progress.
He had me name the huge rifle "King Kong" and I engraved it as such on the side plate. The barrel is 36" long and the gun weighs 22 pounds.
Collectors will probably not care, but shooters should be aware that ken was Left -Handed and so the gun is a lefty.


I called Rock Island and let them know I was the maker, but was only able to leave a recorded phone message. Maybe they will call back. If they do I'll post the details of the conversation and let you all know what's going on with the gun.

Tag

??????????
What does Tag mean?

(I am not much of a cyber guy. Please explain)

I think it means they are gonna come back and read it later.

It means I'm following your thread. That's one fine looking gun you built. Kudos!

WOW!! Don't know why in hell I'd want it............but I do!

Beautiful work szihn, would like to hear how the sighting in process went.

I zeroed quite a few 4 bores and to be honest, I am getting too old for it.

I didn't even try it with the 2 bore.


I made the front sight too high and let the customer know any zeroing was up to him. A high sight makes the rifle shoot low and he need to file it off and shoot it to get the point of impact where he wanted it. The owner was close to 400 pounds from what he told me. I weight 185.

On my big guns my policy is that rifles up to 8 bore come to the customer zeroed by me. Anything over an 8 bore is up to them.

One man can't zero a gun perfectly for another anyway, but on the huge ones (6s 4s and the only 2 I ever made, the one above) the point of impact from one man to another can be WAY off. Differences in body weight and build made a very large difference in point of impact with heavy recoiling guns, especially those that are not very fast. You see it with modern powerful rifles that shoot 2400 to 2800 fps and with a gun that shoots "only'" 1300 to 1600 FPS the difference is extreme. As I said, I weight 185 pounds, but I am only 5' 6" tall (short) so a tall man "bends" more then I do in recoil and that will make the ball impact higher and usually to one side.

Wow! That will eat thru a pound of powder pretty quick.

Frequently, it's easier to "tag" a post, than search for it in the Search function, or find after three pages of posts in front of it. You can select "View Posts" in your profile, and find the post you were interested in by the posted "tag" quite a bit faster. Works really well, when the Classified section is rolling fast.

On topic, beautiful work, but I'd let my "buddy-ies" shoot it first...

Naaah Hawk Driver.
In fact you probably would not use a pound in that gun.
Maybe 700-1100 grains.
This is a later 2 bore being fired with a light charge (no I am not kidding)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RIT5KloknI

One shot would convince you that you NEVER need to fire it again. EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! After that the powder just sits on the shelf and smiles at you.

AH64guy, thanks for the explanation. I don't use my computer much, and I never really learned much about them. I don't really like computers at all, but it's become a necessity for my business so I do use it, but just enough to send and receive massages. So I don't "speak the language" very well.
Thanks so much for your kind words too.

Well a man from Rock Island Auction Co contacted me by e-mail last night. He may call me today on the phone. They want to know more about the rifle. So they may be modifying the page on their company web site to reflect new information.

I volunteered to help if I can. I'll answer all their questions and perhaps that will help to generate interest in the gun at auction time.

Cool videos. Colin is a friend of mine.

The guys in Britain I don't know. I think the info is wrong unless the bullet fired through the English gun is a hollow one, like a shotgun slug, or maybe made with a large groove like a paradox slug. The ball of the 2 bore I made is 3500 grains, so a 2500 grain bullet seems too light.


Both these vids are of guns made after I made the one for Ken. He ordered his in 1998 I believe. I made an 8 bore and delivered it to a customer he knew at the 1998 Safari Club Convention, and the next "big gun" I made was a 4 bore that I shipped out. Ken also saw the 4. He liked both of the guns he saw and that was the reason he called me and asked me if I could do a 2 bore.

It's been long enough ago now that I am unsure of the dates, but it was many years ago now. I think 19, but I am not sure.

Too much gun for me but the videos are sure fun to watch. Beautiful rifles.

Too much for me too.
But what the heck, I build what the customer wants.
That's why he's the customer.

Beautiful work of art, Steve!

BTW, the rifle sold for $4,313.00!

Ed

4213? What a weird number.
I guess there is someone out there who's now happy.

I expect he'll stay that way (unless he fires it..........and learns what the word "Kick" really means )

Begs to the question "What would one shoot with that?"

Answer = "Any damn thing he wants to."

If one reads the early colonization literature, lots of folks ran around with 4-bores in Africa. Probably where the need for a gun bearer arose. With dangerous game and need for a spare, that's a little much for a person to pack on an all day jaunt.