1 1/2 gauge?

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DReicht

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:uhoh: My shotgun knowledge doesn't extend beyond 24, 12, 12 gauge, but I saw something about all the way up to 1 1/2 gauge. Whats the deal?
 
I know that there are such things as four gauge or four bore rifles, but I have only seen them on a shooting show with Jim Scoutten. He shot one and it looked like it nearly knocked him on his butt. Pretty funny stuff.

I have never heard of a 1.5 gauge shotgun or rifle. Will be interested in what others have to say.
 
'I do know there are industrial applications for "shotguns" and some of those are pretty big. I don't exactly remember the applications in question but the guns are nothing like what we think of as guns so to speak. Big mounted barrels really.

Chris
 
I've never heard of anything intended to be a shoulder-fired weapon that was larger than a 2 bore--and only one of those. The recoil was reputed to make the shooter bleed from the ears and nose.
 
You are telling me there was a shoulder fired 2 bore weapon????:what:

I have never heard of anything bigger then 4 gauge, except maybe a punt gun and the aforementioned industrial applications that are not really guns/weapons.
 
There were letter gauges far bigger than the 2 bore, but they died out with the punt guns that fired them.

David
 
Does any collector out there have a comparison picture of the different monster gauges next to a 12 gauge shell???

Would be very interested to see the difference. I think the four bore rifle jim was shooting was black-powder with an all lead bullet.
 
Definition of Gauge

The number of round balls made of pure lead having the diameter of the bore that constitute a pound.

You can have any gauge you want except zero and infinity I suppose.

It's just an old way of saying the diameter of the bore. Dram equivalent is also a throw back. It really just tells you the velocity for a given projectile weight.
 
The really big bores were punt guns, a fixed shotgun mounted to the front of a skiff used to kill flocks of resting waterfowl by market hunters.
 
I actually fired a 4 Gauge about 20 years ago... and wouldnt like to repeat the experience.

1 1/2 and 2 Ga guns did exist as Zinj mentioned were at one point popular in India for waterfowl hunting by the royals... they used it for meat gathering to feed the royal hunt party rather than sport.
4 Ga and 2 Ga were also used for elephant and Rhino hunting. As were the 500 Express H&H guns..
 
haha Entire flocks? Thats a pretty funny image.

The punt gun nearly made wild fowl an extinct species in the US so they were banned from use in 1918 because they just eradicated all the fowl in a lake in no time whatsoever. Very few of them are remaining.

The Royal Armouries has a few on display in Leeds, England. Unfortantly my close up photos didn't turn out but those things have these massive recoil springs built into them so they don't break you in half.

puntgun1.jpg


puntgun2.jpg


The things used shells about 3-5 inches across. Some were a little smaller than this one. Some were bigger.
 
Kiln Guns

I remember some of those industrial applications called kiln guns for blasting the firebrick linings other brittle insulation off the walls of mill furnaces and vessels.:cool: No, they weren't shoulder fired!:eek:
 
Bass pro shop in Springfield Missouri used to have one of the punt guns on display downstairs near the gun area. It was in a display that looked pretty similar to the one above near as I recall.

I have 4 of the 8 ga shells.
 
I believe Remington still makes 8ga slugs for knocking off slag growth on industrial foundry or kiln type devices. I haven't heard or anything that large in gauge before though.

Here is one such device. the Winchester Ringblaster.

http://www.winchester.com/industrial...ngblaster.aspx

Looks like a blast.

Correct, the pulp and paper mill where I grew up has one for the lime after it comes out of the kiln...
 
We had one of the Remington Industrials at work for while. You can't buy one, lease only. When we had ours ten or so years ago the lease was $5,000 per year. It wasn't that effective for our situation so we let it go back.
They are a blast (no pun intended) to shoot but after about an hour and a few hundred rounds in 120 degree heat it starts being like work.
Thing weighs about 75lbs and had to be hung from a chain. Two person crew, one to load and one to fire.
Ammo wasn't all that expensive, about $6.00 a box. We shot 00 buck, no slugs. They came in low & high velocity.
When they let the gun go back I tried to buy a box of ammo for collecting purposes, someone in the purchasing dept. freaked out wondering why I wanted them. I think they had me pegged as some kind of nut until two managers and a Exec. VP said they wanted some too. None of us got any though :mad:
I did save a bag full of empty hulls.

Side by side with a 12ga hull
sidebyside.jpg

End view
endview.jpg

Swallowed up!
insideout.jpg
 
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They also make salute blanks in 8-ga and bigger.

http://www.cannon-mania.com/ammunition.htm

Somewhere I've got a real sharp closeup of some of these in transparent plastic hulls, loaded with BP. I'll post it later when/if I find it in the vast recesses of my F:\drive.

It was so pretty I used it for my wallpaper for a while.

That cannon-mania.com is a fun site to browse.
 
It is, or at least was until fairly recently, still legal to punt gun in England.
Greener says the usual punt gun was 1 1/2" bore, three ounces of powder and a pound and a half of shot; I doubt things are much different now. Carry along a 10 or 12 ga to finish off the cripples.

Jac Weller, who used to do great articles in American Rifleman, had an 8-bore NITRO double rifle. He thought it was made as soon as the physical requirements of smokeless powder were reasonably understood; with steel barrels and strong lockup. But way more powerful than needed for any land animal. He had a PWH decline to shoot it at a target, the guy said it might kick him into a flinch that would get him or a client eaten or stomped in the real world.
 
8ga brass makes cool door & drawer pulls too. Just don't try to use them in the kitchen, the wife didn't think they were all that great. :)
knobs.gif
 
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