Big Bore Surprise

T

tiriaq

Super Moderator
Moderating Team
Rating - 100%
252   0   0
I enjoy tinkering, repairing, rebuilding, so at the last Switzers auction, I bought a wired together bale of old gun barrels. Basically all brown neglected, hard to identify. Finally got around to seeing exactly what I had.
Two Marlin .44W barrels, one from a '94, the other earlier. A Winchester High Wall .38-55. Four assorted Sniders, cadet through 3 band. A large bore poly rifled thing, octagon to round. And a BIG one. At the auction, I thought it was the breech end of punt gun. Birmingham proofs on the bottom, with 6 between them. Six bore. About 15/16". It had a dovetailed rear sight at one time, and still had a small dovetailed in front sight. EDINBURGH on the top. Had been a percussion gun, the bar for a front action lock is still on the barrel. Slightly octagon at the breech, then round, an aiming flat along the top. Plain twist. It is 24 3/4" overall. Breechplug appears to have been 1 5/16 - 8. Single underlug, had a rib for the rod at one time. I don't think that it is shortened. Anyway, it turns out that the sucker is rifled. Two groove, so I assume that it used a lugged projectile. I am guessing that it was one of the big bore smashers used in Africa and India. Some of these things even shot explosive projectiles.
 
$88.50 all in.
I'm on dialup, photos just aren't reasonable.
A few of the barrels actually have shootable bores, and some of the exteriors aren't bad. I'm planning on reaming out one of the Sniders, which has a redceiver and breechblock, and turning it into a shotgun, assuming that the barrelled action will fit one of my Sniders. This one does not have a shooting bore. Another is a steel two band 5 groove (Mk. III) must have been from a project. Has a usable bore, but the shank has been shortened about 1/4". Its not bad outside either. I have a commercial shotgun conversion of an Enfield rifled musket; would be neat to make a rifled 2nd barrel set for this one.
Did you know that a Snider's breech threads are 1-14? Same as M-H and Lee Enfield. How about an inline ml Lee Enfield?
 
Lucky bugger; drool, drool. It would be fairly easy to make a belted mold similar to the Jeff Tanner mold. I have a Lancaster 2 groove rifle that shoots a belted ball and is fairly accurate

cheers mooncoon
 
How is the winchester High wall barrel in 38-55 as I could use one I need a original one to put a gun back to the way it should be.
 
My 12 bore 2 groove rifle came with a bullet mould, it weights 750 grains

[http://]

Here is the rifle in it case with some extras

http://

I have not got this one to shoot with the orginal bullet but I did not have very thin patch material. I have shot it with a lyman mine bullet that is 735 diameter and weights around 750 grains and it handle it well. If we have some nice days in deer season I may try this gun out.
English made a lot of interesting guns
 
####, the big rifled barrel sounds interesting. I had a Brunswick for a short time and it had two groove rifling. I slugged the barrel and sent that away to England to have a mould for a banded ball made. I shot it once at 100 yards and it was very accurate. I think that a belted conical would be my choice. What a find. Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom