This gun is for sale again on Guns International. SN 18860 (late 1873, early 1874 - original centerfire gun not a modified pin-fire). Those are blued Damascus 42" barrels to my eye.
https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...bore-hammer-shotgun.cfm?gun_id=102390588

It was last sold by James Julia about 7 years ago:
https://jamesdjulia.com/item/1363-396/

If you need a canon, this nickel plated salt-water 19lb gun should do the trick. Price is quite good $5,000 - $30 a pound - about prime beef price and about 1/3rd of what it would cost to replace a shoulder.

Guns International tells me the gun has been sold. Not surprising.

Closer to $263/lb. but very tempting, and RMC will make you brass shells for a mere $50/each. One probably would not need many.

Yeah that math wasn't close...

Just had a vodka martini after a hard fought golf match. Don't be too hard on me. . .just a decimal point off. . what's that amongst accounting type friends? Gun is gone though. . . and that, I sincerely regret...gone literally in 60 seconds.

I actually add left to right verbally:
Example
11,129
. 9,360
. 1,670
. . 960
. . ..59

add it golf score like
10,--- . -(10 thousand column)
+11,---,-(thousands column) = 21,---;
+ 1,900 (hundreds column) = 22,9--;
+. . 260 (tens column) . . . . = 23,15-;
+. . . 18 (ones column) . . . .= 23,168

Try it a few times; you can add columns of 50 figures and get the sum pretty much faster than a calculator.

They used to make barrels that would screw into your choke threads if I remember correctly. A lot cheaper.

William Larkin Moore is just down the 101 - how did I miss that!?!

Laminated Steel Gene

Someone got a bargain! Lagopus.....

I believe that gun was a double rifle to begin with and probably with much shorter barrels (24") because it has stalking safeties. I have never seen a smooth bore manufactured with stalking safeties.

Reilly advertised rifle barrel lengths in the 1860's as 24," 26", 28".

I thought this gun might have been a rifle because of its weight. George L.'s 4 bore weighed in at 16 lbs. However, most Reilly rifles had pistol grip stocks. About half his extant big bore shotguns (10 gauge and larger) also had pistol grip stocks. His shotguns 12 gauge and smaller never did; all extent 12 ga shotguns are straight stocks. So I concluded that the barrels were original and perhaps it was just a big gun and that the user ordered the safeties.

There are two extent Reilly shotguns in the database with a stalking safety or variant:

. . .1) 14985: 16 gauge now owned by SXS40. The barrels are 28", a Reilly rifle length but they could have been shortened; the safeties have been removed. The weight is not in the ad which would be a dead give-away; but it has a straight stock so it's a toss up - original rifle (no because of stock); or shotgun (no because of barrel length and safeties)? The weight of the gun will decide the issue (HWK sir, please add).

. . .2) 15625: George L's 4 bore - he insisted it was created as a shotgun, not a rifle; I think it was decided that this gun began life as a 6 or 8 bore shotgun and the chambers were bored out for paper 4 bore cartridges.

1) ===========Terry Buffum now owned by SXS40=========================
14985. (original pin-fire altered to centerfire)
http://www.amoskeagauction.com/109/717.php
serial #14985, 16 ga, 28" matted rib damascus barrels choked cylinder and cylinder with very good bright bores having a few light pits present. ; unfortunately the stalking safeties are not present.



2) ===========George L's 4 bore========================================
15625. (original pin-fire altered to centerfire)
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=594726&page=1



I think the Reilly big-bore shotguns in the 1860's-70's broke the rules and used more rifle technologies. .probably for obvious reasons.

Argo44:

Was it commonplace for the period for a scattergun to wear >>Stalking Safetys<< ??



Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Raimey, I've a database of about 660 Reilly's from 1828 to 1912. The only two extant hammer gun shotguns with stalking safeties are the ones pictured. It's interesting though that one was a 4 bore (or a 6 bore proofed as "7" and rechambered for 4 bore paper cartridges) - George L's gun.

So based on a limited survey I'd hazard that perhaps you could get stalking safeties on a Reilly big Bore shotgun - 10 ga to 4 ga - in the 1860-70's. He also put pistol grips on several of those big bore shotguns, something he never used normally on shotguns.

The question is, "Why?" Well, I don't think you'd want a 4 bore to go off unexpectedly. It might sink your boat or emasculate you. I'll defer to the experts but 2 of the 4 known Reilly 4 bore shotguns from this period had the safeties.

I was entertaining the thought along the same vein that considering the bore size, the mechanics pivoted towards the rifle platform rather than the lesser scattergun platform??

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

The Staking Safety may have been incorporated to prevent you from accidently shooting off your Gun-Bearer or Porter's Ears as you rest the barrels on his shoulder to shoot?

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

I saw that gun on GI and if I had not dropped a bundle on a 4 GA recently I would have jumped on it. Someone got a very good deal. RMC is backed up with work and I don't plan on seeing my order filled for quite a while.

Wow that was a deal

Raimey always tries to help interpret my hyper-analytical style which comes out obtuse and opaque. Yes. I believe Reilly built a number of his 10 to 4 bore shotguns on rifle platforms in the 1860's-70's. Voila.

This gun is up for sale yet again at the December Morphy's Auction: Starting bid $4K. Estimate $8-12K. (bought it for $5k, wants $8K - fast profit in 12 weeks). A 4-bore, SxS, Nickel plated, 42" barreled wild-fowler. Doubt there's another one on the planet.

https://www.proxibid.com/Guns-Milit...LING-IN/lotInformation/80434654#topoflot

Must be to cover that polish job

Doesn’t list choke. No go for me. If it was ic, m maybe...

I’m looking for a new SC gun that I can run the course with.

I believe this gun was offered for sale by big bore collector Bill McPhail at Baltimore some time back. I don't know of its history since then.

Hmm, might make an interesting gun for skeet and cowboy shooting

380 grains of BP and 4 ozs of shot should be enough for any bird or knockdown target. Of course I'm only going to get 18 shells to the pound of powder and about 100 shots per 25 lb bag of bird shot.....

I took a deer last year with a 3.8 that cost me about $25.00 a pound.

Hi Gene,

Reilly No. 14985 weighs 6.027 lbs. on my digital scale.

Ball guns would typically have stalking safeties