4 Bore Blunderbuss Update

[thewho66]

As much as I hate to say it, you have some big balls to play with. :rotf: :haha: By the way the gun looks real sharp as will, how much do you have invested in it now that its all done. :thumbsup:

 

[Zoar]

Since I did the work myself the 'costs' were all from 2 sources:

1) Barrel from stonewallcreek --- $215
2) Stock and hardware from Mike Lea --- $525

Total about $750

I don't know about you guys but $750 bucks for an outrageous monster ball thrower and a Turkey Gun is not bad at all. Sure I could have gotten a "puny" 10 gauge for around $500 bucks already made for me, but a 4 Bore is just another league altogether.

Thank you for positive comments. And thanks Roy for posting the pictures for me.

 

[anika]

Wow I like it. Been thinking about you and this project for a long time. If you use it for home defense mount a camera on it I would love to see the expression on the goblins face when he's looking down the barrel. odis

 

[Mike Brooks]

Any reason you decided to put the trigger guard on in that fashion?

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Zoar,
Got any close photos of the butt plate and trigger guard areas?

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Any reason you decided to put the trigger guard on in that fashion?

Drill out...maybe?

 

[Zoar]

Not sure I know what you mean by the trigger guard. Please clarify and I will try to answer.

BTW I shot it with 160 grains on Black Powder 2F under 4 ounces of shot.

I also shot a 1500 grain round ball 1.0" diameter lead over 130 grains of 2F...

Wow. Devastating loads.

I also shot it at night, just black powder and wad and wad and flour. Wow Wow. The flour load made a FAT 3 foot long flame that observers said looked like a giant acetylene TORCH!

All I can say is every home needs one of these and I don't know why I have waited since the 4th grade to get me one of these Blunderbuss.

 

[wulf]

TG looks like it is on backwards..but what do I
know? I never made a blunderbus.

 

[Zoar]

Damn, that is the way it wanted to go on. Functions fine. Oh well. It could be worse, if the barrel went on backwards that would have been a real boobooo!!! Hahahahahaaaaaaaaa!

 

[Zoar]

My son visited over the Thanksgiving Holiday and we had a blast shooting Muzzleloaders. Of course we had to shoot the Blunderbuss with those big 'ole 1500 grainer 1.025 ROUND BALLS. What a HOOT. We "only" used 140 grains of black under them but it gave a stern decisive kick.

I don't know what the velocity was. I still have to chrono these round balls under that much black powder. I would say 160 grains is about what I am comfortable loading up in this gun without a pad. It only weighs 8.5 pounds so with a payload of a quarter pound (1500 grains) the amount of powder I can use is limited unless I wear a shooting pad to lessen the felt recoil.

It sure was fun, though. I have to practice more before I would consider hunting with it using round ball. We loaded up four ounces of number 8 shot in it over 140 grains of black powder and at 18 yards I would estimate that any bird in a 5-6 foot diameter would be dead. The pattern was dense enough in that whole area. Shooting skeet with this load would be no fun----just sort of point, pull the trigger, and every disc would bust.

 

[MaxPower]

how has the project progressed? ive been thinking about building one of these, sure looks like fun

 

[Jeff Brown]

Well.... Some things are so much fun you wonder IF they are legal...

All I can say is WOW! Shooting that 4 bore blunderbuss was terrific! It fired flawlessly and it made one large appliance box wish it never lived.

As far as the load I ended up at 100 grains of black and twenty-five 38 caliber round balls, so about 4.5 ounces (128 grams) of shot! That load had a stout kick that made me laugh out loud. It is definitely a small cannon. I shot it at about 30 feet and it had approx a 30 inch "pattern". As some may recall I bought alot of the parts from Michael Lea and the barrel from Stone Creek, a Rayle's steel 4 gauge 20 inch barrel. I also bought 4 bore precut WADS and over shot cards from Michael Lea which worked very well and kept the powder and round balls very tight. I have to order MORE of those!

I'm going to load it up with 4 ounces or so of #4 shot and I would say I have my Turkey gun! Sure, I will experiment increasing the powder some however 100 grains of 3 F seemed plenty and out of that short barrel more powder just may be a waste.

Just the thing if you're a captain and 10 mutineers are coming down a hallway at you!

 

[Scota4570]

Does anyone know where I can buy some .995 to 1.020 Lead Round Balls???

http://www.ballmoulds.com/

You make them.

I have a 1" (4-bore) smooth bore. Use 1F powder. Mine weighs 18#. 350 grains of 1F is reasonable, fun actually. 350 grains of 3f will hurt you. The slower acceleration is important.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Very interesting banger there. I'm not sure you need as much powder as you mentioned. That's a bunch. Try looking for fishing weights for your 1" balls. I have some for a small cannon but do not remember where I bought them.

 

[Col. Batguano]

How much does it weigh? I think it would be really fun to use as a grouse gun--and legal too. Also as an area defoliant.

Just wondering if you have enough velocity with only 140 gr FFg to make the pellets lethal.

 

[Scota4570]

He probably does not. Probably only getting a couple hundred fps.

The 350 grains 1-F I gave is with a .990 ball. It is defiantly subsonic. The trajectory to 50 yards is rainbow. IT is a low end load as used with 4-bores in Africa before they went to cartridge guns.

I once made a 12 ga ML pistol. My first loads were around 40 grains. The ball bounced off redwood siding on an old building. With the big bores you need to use enough powder to get reasonable velocity. Will it kick?..well yeah. It is part of the deal. If you launch 2-ounces of shot at 1200 fps in a 7-pound gun it will kick too. That is a modern turkey load.

For comparison:
Load------------------------Recoil in Foot pounds
4-bore 350 grains---------195
400gr at 2600fps----------94
2-0unce turkey load-------74
4-bore 150 gr---------------25
12 ga with trap load------18

http://www.shooterscalculator.com/recoil-calculator.php

The key factor on how bad it kicks is the recoil velocity. Big and slow does not hurt. Catching/ tossing a medicine ball for instance. A 400 grain bullet launched at 2600 fps from a 9# rifle definitely hurts. ML's are somewhere in between.

 

[tenngun]

For the nurds in the crowd, the soft red rust that no one wants on their guns is Ferric Oxide.

Ferrous Oxide is the hard brown rust that many people like to see on their guns metal parts.
It absorbs oil well and once this is done it will prevent further rusting of the iron or steel that is under it.

By exposing unoiled Ferrous Oxide to steam or hot water the rust is converted to Ferro-Ferric Oxide which is blue-black.
Actually it is more black than blue.

John Bivins feels that Rust Bluing was seldom used prior to the 19th Century although I am not sure how many English or European guns and armor he studied.

Armor was blued in days of old, up till reading your post I assumed ( yes I know what that means) it was the same way,boiling freshly browned.