doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 4 bore SxS Reilly, 42" barrels

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.