I'm in correspondence with a South African on a Reilly SxS hammer-gun rifle. It is 19187 - i.e. early 1875. It is 39 bore...i.e. .488 caliber under-lever, Hammer gun. It's obviously a big game gun.





There was a Jeffery .475#2 (.488) for elephants but it came out in 1898 or so. So the question is this. What black powder cartridge was available in 1875 chambered in 39 bore (.475-.488)? Any cartridge guys around?

My feeling is this "39 bore" was actually chambered for .577 Snider. I'll ask the owner for additional details on the chamber. (ok, I'm chasing gun history)

Parent cartridge .577 Snider
Bullet diameter .455 in (11.6 mm)
Neck diameter .487 in (12.4 mm)
Shoulder diameter .628 in (16.0 mm)
Base diameter .668 in (17.0 mm)
Rim diameter .746 in (18.9 mm)
Rim thickness .06 in (1.5 mm)
Case length 2.34 in (59 mm)
Overall length 3.12 in (79 mm)

I just don't know how the bore was measured on a rifle in 1875.... Any insights?

39 bore will be a 50 caliber projectile. In the black powder period of time there was a fair amount of variance in bore and groove diameters. Possibly chambered in one of the 577/500 variants. Most likely not the Snider case as a parent because the Snider Is much shorter. The 577 came in a multitude of case lengths.

Greener in >>Modern Breech-Loaders<< gives that the 36 bore is paired w/ the 500 Bore Sporting Rifles.

For a 39 bore, the diameter of the plug gauge that would pass the full length was 0.492" or 0.490".

The 39 bore bullet had a diameter of either 0.472" or 0.470".

Is the rifling >>shallow<<, >>deep<< or >>Henry<<?


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

SKB is correct.
39 is the standard marking for a .500 (~.510 groove)nominal rifle.
and there were many different variations of .577/500 type calibers, especially in that time frame.
Chamber cast and bore slugging are a must before moving forward.
WC-

Many thanks. I looked at my files on Reilly double rifles. And sure enough, here is 18797 advertised as a .500 BPE. - 39 bore with Henry Patent barrels. I've let the guy in South Africa know. Perhaps he'll take a chamber cast. I also believe Krakow Kid from this board has two Reilly .500 BPE's in the 18500 range.