How big a bore is too big?

[mark davidson]

I have a custom Jack Garner flinter in .54 cal. that I love. I have a notion for something "bigger". How big is too big? I know I will go above .58 to maybe .62. Then again I may go bigger than that! I shoot mostly white tail deer and hogs and my .54 is plenty big enough. I just "WANT" a real shoulder bruising game slammer cause I like looking at that big ole hole in the end. :-) Still I want acceptable accuracy out to 100 yards with reasonable trajectory. I am fairly newly obsessed with this whole black powder thing but I am having a great time. Your suggestions will be appreciated. The rifle will likely be a jager with barrel length in the 30 to 38" range.

[R.M.]

Boy, wait till you talk to Bigsmoke. He'll talk big bores with you.  

[mark davidson]

Thanks, I am looking forward to any and all opinions.

[Mitch]

"too big" is whatever you CAN'T shoot!!

[Uncle Russ]

Boy, wait till you talk to Bigsmoke. He'll talk big bores with you.  

Yep, that fella strongly believes in "use enough gun", for anything that just might come along.

Uncle Russ...

[Bigsmoke]

Hmmmm...  Seems like I have somewhat of a reputation going here as a person that likes more gun than is necessary - but always enough to get the job done.

With all that being said, my own personal arsenal consists of a .62 caliber English Sporting Rifle, a .69 caliber English Sporting Rifle and an eight bore double rifle.

The .62 is my "plinking" rifle, which I would use for casual shooting, target matches and maybe deer hunting.  For plinking/targets, I use 135 grains of Ffg.  For more serious, I up it to 200 grains Ffg.

The .69 is my elk rifle.  For shooting, I run about 165 grains Ffg, for serious, 200 grains Ffg.

The 8 bore was built with Africa in mind, although that hasn't happened yet, and at this point, I am doubtful if it will.  The gun did go to Africa, but I didn't be the one to take it.  That fellow shot a 525 pound male lion with it.  He said the ball went in high at the chest, went the entire lenght of his torso, smashed the pelvic girdle, and kept on going out its butt.  Flipped him in the air and did a turn and a half, wound up on his back, facing the oposite direction.  Penetration?  I'd say.  Power?  Plenty to spare.

I had a beautiful .72 caliber that I dropped a bison with, but sold it to a good friend.  Strangely enough, that rifle was probably the best shooting of the bunch.

I really like a slow twist on the big bores, .62 through .72 had 1:104, wide lands, narrow grooves, and shallow rifling.  The all shoot 200 to 225 grains of Ffg well.  The 8 bore has 1:144 and seems to like 300 grians of Fg.

I think any of the above calibers would look good in a Jaeger style rifle.  The .62 would want to be minimum 1 1/8 at the breech and the .69 and the .72 would be 1 1/4".  I don't think I would go with any bigger bore.

With a 200 grain charge of Ffg in the .62 with a 32" barrel, I am getting about 2,000 fps.  The .72 with 200 grains (might have been 225) gave around 1,800 fps.  That was good enough to knock an 1,800 pound bison off his feet and roll him onto his back at 100 yards.  He was shot in the neck, the ball clipped his spine and came to rest under the hide on the far side.  I'd say that is adequate penetration.

I don't know of anything else I can add to this.  You might try Beartooth Bullets website and play with some of their ballistic calculators to see the difference between your current rifle and some of the big bores.  Quite a difference.

Let us know what you wind up thinking about.

[hawkeye]

I have a .75 caliber Brown Bess musket. When shooting a .735 round ball and 90gr 2f, it sure rings the steel targets on the woods walk!  

I also have a .62 caliber early Virginia rifle with a 42" barrel. I shoot a .600 round ball and 100gr 3f out of it. It blew right through the deer I shot last year with it.

My "Pea Shooter" is a 28 bore (.54 caliber) Jackie Brown canoe gun. I shoot mainly shot out of it but have taken both squirrel and finished off a deer with it using a round ball.

[Bigsmoke]

Steve,
I couldn't agree with you more about the 2 bore being too big.  On the wall in a nice, lighted display would be a good place for that to stay.  That sure is a beautiful piece of work.  Bravo!!  You get it shot yet?
The 16 bore looks pretty nice and is a comfortable size to shoot.  That would be a .66 caliber.  I had one of those for a while, but just couldn't get excited about it.
Still liking the .62 and the .72 the best.

As long as we are recycling photos here, this is a double 4 bore with a .530 ball in one muzzle, just for comparrison.  Kinda makes the little .54 seem about insignificant by comparrison.

[Kermit]

What size cannonball does a 2 bore fling???

[sse]

This one is too big.
It's a 2 bore

"King Kong"  LOL!

[mario]

Hmmmm...  Seems like I have somewhat of a reputation going here as a person that likes more gun than is necessary - but always enough to get the job done.

The .62 is my "plinking" rifle, which I would use for casual shooting, target matches and maybe deer hunting.  For plinking/targets, I use 135 grains of Ffg.  For more serious, I up it to 200 grains Ffg.

With things like this in the same post, you wonder why?

Mario

PS- My offer to help sight in that 2-bore still stands, Steve, if your client will pay my airfare...

[oneshot72]

Being the proud owner of the .72 cal that Bigsmoke mentions I would have to agree that it is a fine shooting gun and great caliber. If I just want to plink with it I use a load of 100 grain of Ffg and for serious hunting I use 200 grains of Ffg. Both loads are extremly accurate in the right hands.  The hunting load is not too hard on the shoulder either but much bigger than that and it might get a bit harsh.
Mike

[snake eyes]

Steve,
         That 2 bore looks like it could shoot mortars :lol:
snake-eyes

[Uncle Russ]

Being the proud owner of the .72 cal that Bigsmoke mentions I would have to agree that it is a fine shooting gun and great caliber. If I just want to plink with it I use a load of 100 grain of Ffg and for serious hunting I use 200 grains of Ffg. Both loads are extremly accurate in the right hands.  The hunting load is not too hard on the shoulder either but much bigger than that and it might get a bit harsh.
Mike

FWIW; At Mikes invitation, he and I attended the Che~lo~han Primitive Shoot, back about Feb. or March of this year.
In the "Woods-Walk", Mike using the same .72 mentioned above, cleaned the targets, and many of the targets were extremely difficult..... plus that particular course had a life size "Running Moose"...or "Moose on a cable" as some prefered to call the contraption.
(The shooter had about a 20' window to pull up, aim, and shoot. at this moving target. A really, really neat game, if you have the facilities to set up such a target.)
If memory serves me right, Mike was the only one to hit that Moose in the designated kill area.

Trust me when I say he can shoot that big rifle, and he does it quite well!

John Boy (BigSmoke) seems to really enjoy his big bores, and there is not a thing in the world wrong with shooting a big bore...as big as you can stand up to, and still shoot accurately.
I shoot a .66 cal smoothie, but I do not use anywhere near the powder charge that Mike and BigSmoke use.

As I said, this little blurb is FWIW. But I do hope it shows that big bores can be very accurate, and quite manageable.

Uncle Russ...

[mark davidson]

Thanks to all for the information and opinions. For me, the .62 would be absolute minimum and might be plenty enough. There is something about the .72 though that appeals to me. Here is my hesitance and curiousity on the issue: I had a very respected and experienced custom ML builder tell me he saw a really big bore, maybe a .72,( I cannot remember) ball hit a buffalo in the rib and actually fail to enter. (read "bounce off") Maybe the powder charge was too light; I don't know. I want a bigger bore thumper but I also want reasonable trajectory usable on out to at least 100 yards and I don't want a ball so big and slow that I might have to worry about penetration. Remember I am repeating hearsay here and I am fairly new here so be kind and help me form the correct opinion on big bores.