4 Bore Snider action

[EthanisAwsome]

This is My 4 Bore Snider action punt/shoulder gun, this is currently the crown jewel of my collection it use's 4 inch shells and can supposedly use "Very" flare gun shells in a pinch for reloading. I also got a letter with this gun from 1930's on how to load this beast and some of it's quirks. This piece was legally imported in September 2025 as a antique.

 

[tiriaq]

Impressive!

 

[antiqueguy]

I have not seen a 4 bore snider biggest one I seen was a 8 bore so far. I’d love to get my hands on one of these sporting sniders one day.

 

[milsurpo]

Very cool! It appears the Snider breech is simply added to the barrel without receiver (shoe). And what is the square thing in front of the breech? Is it possible this once had rear sights and was an "elephant gun" rather than punt gun?

milsurpo

 

[BlackPowderBurner]

Outstanding!

 

[antiqueguy]

Very cool! It appears the Snider breech is simply added to the barrel without receiver (shoe). And what is the square thing in front of the breech? Is it possible this once had rear sights and was an "elephant gun" rather than punt gun?

milsurpo

Jacob sniders original patent was a basically that barrel cut breech block installed with the hinge brazed on. The British were some of the only ones to use the “shoe” look at Japanese sniders their set up much like the original patent.

 

[EthanisAwsome]

Very cool! It appears the Snider breech is simply added to the barrel without receiver (shoe). And what is the square thing in front of the breech? Is it possible this once had rear sights and was an "elephant gun" rather than punt gun?

milsurpo

So this gun was originally a Bank gun the precursor to what we know today as Punt guns since they were used off of banks along canals and were about 50inch long barrels some exceeding 70inch. this example was shortened and breached in around 1895 and major sale in 1930's. As far as I can tell it has a full choke and the muzzle was heavily reinforce leading to the block in the back to raise the rear sight plane to shoot straight with out running a rib all the way down the barrel to the same height as the reinforcement of the muzzle.