Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 2 Bore

I prefer a 22 hornet.

AI that thing and you’d really have something!

I remember it as a young kid. We loved to go to VC! It wasn't all commercialized like it is now. They had a character called Badwater Bill who walked the street with his desert canary and chicken riding on it.

I can't find a good picture of him, but this was Badwater.

I like the Colibris by Aguila.

I wouldn't shoot that thing on a dare. My sense of 'shooting adventure' stops with my Winchester 1300

Neck it down to 6mm.

Was going to say, it's no Creedmoor............but hey

A lot of the early Africa writings (late 1700's) make mention of 4 bores and lots of bloody noses and bruised shoulders acquired as they tried single handed shots while chasing game on horses. Seems elephants were capable of absorbing a dozen rounds or so and still making a get away.

Not seen any references on shouldering 2 bores.

My greatest pounding comes from a 45-70 that I mistakenly decided to hop up. Four hundred and five grain slugs leaving at about 1,700 fps. Need to find some sucker to shoot up the last 85 rounds. It's also the only rifle that clearly generates torque as the slug is leaving.

We had a custom pistolsmith locally who converted Ruger Blackhawks to .45-70. They generated enough torque that you had to specify if you were going to shoot them right- or left-handed...and you HAD to shoot them single-handed. From the right hand, the torque would bring the gun up and left, twisting on the way such that the gun ended up next to your left ear. If you tried that holding it in the left hand or with a two-handed grip, the gun would come straight back and plant the hammer spur in your forehead. If you were a leftie, he rifled them with the opposite twist.

I did an article on him and his guns. It was enlightening. With his training, even a small boy could handle one of those cannons. The counerintuitive secret was that the gun had to be held lightly in one hand, not with a death grip. Your arm muscles had to be relaxed to allow the gun to move. It was going to move, you soon learned, and if you let it there was no pain. But try to manhandle it and you'd strain or break something. You just had to get used to the fact that when the trigger broke, the gun simply disappeared from your sight, magically placing itself pointing straight up next to your left ear.

He also would chamber your Blackhawk to .375 Max or .444 Marlin. I fired all three, and the .444 was the nastiest. VERY quick recoil. The big .45-70 was a long, fairly slow shove.

I will have to check to be sure but I believe F. C. Selous hunted elephants w/ a 4 bore. I am sure he was shooting ball that was "4 to a pound". He wrote that he was unseated from his horse once by recoil and developed a lifelong flinch.

He also could run for hours chasing elephants while not wearing pants. Those old boys were pretty tough.


mike r

Nope, turn it upright and use it for a stovepipe, you'd have to put a flue in it, though.

Never even heard of one.

1 Minute, I just loaded about 50 rounds of .45-70 with similar performance as you related. My purpose is crowd control, and figure with proper alignment it’s good for 8-10 perforated jerks per shot. My other .45-70 load uses a 530 gr bullet and is much more serious.

I was corrected on that earlier, lvmiker. I probably should have said that the only 2- and 4-bore guns I had ever personally seen were punt guns.

Digital D:

Also have a 45-90 in a Sharps here, and a mold for some 545 gr slugs. Have not fired those pills yet but with the rifle coming in at 15 lbs it should be a piece of cake. I do think I'll stay away from the 2 bore though. Have a good one,

My serious loads for the .45-70 led to my rifle being named Thumper. Published load data suggests that bullet is good for 1,800 FPS, that being a fair bit more than I’m cruising at present.

Hell, I'd pull the trigger in a second.

Now ya just need somebody ta hold it while I do.

C'mon Elks, you know the bunnies got your .460 figured out. Time for a new approach!

Hold my beer!

There are so many aspects to recoil. I had a Rifles Inc 458 Lott, and while I don’t remember how heavy it was, I would guess in the 9 lb + range.

Later, I had a Marlin ‘95 at maybe 7.5 lbs. A pound and a half notwithstanding, heavy 45-70 loads were just downright obnoxious in it for me. Worse than the Lott in their respective stocks or at least it seemed so.