8 Bore flintlock trade rifle?

Gentle Ben

Gentle Ben

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Warburg, Alberta
I have recently acquired an 8 Bore, smoothbore flintlock rifle with a 32" Leige stamped bbl. (Cirlcle ELG). Actual bore diameter is .890" There is a bead sight at the muzzle along with two hand made bbl bands around the stock. I am going to try to include pictures. The condition of the gun would be "good' to "very good". The bore is very clean and polished with a few shallow pits a few inches inside the muzzle. A steel butt plate with a hook on it and steel furniture, nothing fancy (engraving or gold) Looks like a light colored beechwood stock Any idea what type of gun this is? I've perused the internet with no luck. Any help from you veterans would be greatly appreciated....

Any idea on how to attach photos?.................
 
I can remember guns like that being sold. 20th century. Story was that they were made for the African trade.
 
Yes, that's what I've gathered so far. Perhaps a big game rifle/dangerous game rifle. Those were brave men back then!!! Just a tiny bit more hang time than a modern rifle especially when you are confronting a charging hippo.
 
Pictures will really help, upload them to photobucket then copy and paste the IMG tag

That sounds really cool are you looking to sell it or ?

Mclean
 
I would agree with Tiriaq; guns made for african natives. They often had to defend their crops from large animals that took a lot of killing and at the same time either could not afford or probably were prohibited from owning modern guns or both. Without looking it up, a bore of .89 sounds a lot closer to 6 guage than 8 guage

cheers mooncoon
 
Those guns were sold one time by Dixie gun works.If you can find an old dixie catalog fromthe 60s or early 70s you will see a pic and some info there.They were made as African trade gun and come up for sale from time to time.Here are a couple of pics of the belgian trade guns Dixie use to sell they called it their elephant gun.

lot4336.jpg

SAM_0346.jpg
 
I have an english smooth rifle with a bore of .950. I use 230 grains of 1F and a patched .935 round ball. I suspect the .890 would take a .880 patched ball and around 200 gr of 1F

The guns that Chasseur posted are unusual for a hunting gun in that they have a long hook to the butt plate, at the bottom, more like a target rifle

cheers mooncoon
 
That was charateristic of these large guns for some reason. The other Belgian guns being cleaned out at the time had normal buttplates.
First time I've seen a photo of one with the Miquelet appearing lock. No doubt for a specific marketing area.
 
I checked WW Greener's second edition of the Gun for proof charges. Definitive proof for a gun of the third class (single barrel & smooth bore muzzle loading) gives the definitive proof at 525 grains with a 931 gr projectile. Service charges are usually 1/2 of the definitive proof charge (I think) so that would imply 260 grains of powder (presumably 1F) and roughly a 2 oz round ball. I think that I would back off a bit and use 200 grains just the same.

the short gun on the right is roughly 5 guage and a smooth rifle. The one on the left is roughly 6 guage and a percussion fowler converted from flint. The 6 guage weighs about 12 lbs and the 5 guage about 14 lbs. Both are british made (the duct tape barrel band is american :>) :>) )

cheers mooncoon

Devon.jpg
 
I believe the Belgian trade guns sold by Dixie were just an assortment of parts on hand at the time hence the hooked buttplate.If I remember correctly they sold for about $150 at the time.I remember the story they had in the catalog about them when they sold them, it went like they were used by some pygmy tribes and the little buggers use to run under an elephant and shoot right up into them.Of course it was pure bull but funny anyway.
 
Thanks Chasseur!! That is exactly what my gun looks like. Any idea what they're worth because I will limit my shooting if it's worth a substantial amount, otherwise if my suspicions are correct it's probably not worth a whole pile. Someone mentioned a max load of 200 gr (by volume) of black behind a 2 oz ball, would this be safe to shoot in this rifle. I have recently loaded 120 gr of black and that seems to work well behind my 2 oz lead cast balls.
 
Depending on condition I d say about $300 or so as it is not made of higrade parts or workmanship and most people would mainly interested in it do to bore size alone.
 
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