doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Auction alert - E. M. Reilly 4 bore SxS...

George
You certainly have an exceptional gun-looking forward to seeing
it next Friday at the Vintagers. Will bring some material on
G Abbey who was an excellent Chicago Gunmaker
Reguards
Bill

Well if it came with those shells then there's just absolutely no question is there. *laughs*

It's some kind of a double rifle that's had a big bore shotgun barrel added to it at one time or another. At 12 pounds it certainly didn't start life as a four gauge fowling piece.

I've shot single four bore guns that were 14 and even 16 pounds, the lightest double I've ever seen was in the 14 pound range and it had the barrels cut way down.

I'm not saying it's not an interesting gun, it is, but lets call a spade a spade here. It's a gun that's had something big done to it at sometime in the past, it did not begin life as a 4 gauge shotgun.


Destry

It is fun to speculate the hows and whys and the thoughts of the previous owners of these old guns and what they had in mind when they put the gun together. I remember one 21 lb 4 bore rifle with 3" chambers, the weight seems excessive for the load you could stuff in that case. Other guns may seem overly light, but maybe not for their original intended purpose.

These guns come in alot of sizes:
10 ga 12lb 5 oz-have 2 other 10's @ 12lb
Have 2 double 8's 10 lbs even-not conversions
10 Hammerless 7 1/4 lb on the other end-original

MarketHunter I'm sure the heavy 12 you mentioned was a
Fred Abbey 12lb-saw the gun. Have seen another-same weight

M/L Conversions are lighter and often can not tell they
are Conversion-which may be the case here. To me it
doesn't really matter-still high quality workmanship.
Bill McPhail

Thanks Bill, PM & Destry: The 4 gauge shells do fit nicely into the chambers. I only have bathroom scales to weight it. I'm going to try and find some more accurate ones. The bores were measured with a ruler. Jim did measure the wall thickness as noted before.

Did you notice that the old girl began life as a pinfire and was later converted to centerfire? Would that make a difference in the weight?

Best Regards, George

Whatever it started out as it is one helluva nice piece today! Some one expended a good deal of skilled craftsmanship and another a good deal of money on this fine old gun.

RHD45: You're Right, It weren't cheap but it was worth it. Now I'm going to try to get the case restored.

Best Regards, George

George-


You'll find the way to a proper load for it.
The proper vernacular for that chamber/bore combination is "YOURS"!!


Congratulations.
If I make it out to your end of the world, I'll make sure to ring you first, so that we can get out and run that gorgeous beast!





Cheers
Tinker

According to W.W.Greeners book,"The Gun",4th edition, published in 1888; Guns chambered for 4 bore cartridges may have bores sizes stamped as 4- 5/2- 5/1- 5- 6/2- 6/1- 6- 7/2. Whilst the measured bore size determined the the provisional proof charge.Surprisingly, the service charge is stated to be the same for all bore diameters,namely:- 9 drs powder and 3 ozs; of shot!
Refering to my earlier post in regard to the "Gates' double 4 bore; this gun has 36 inch barrels, 4 inch chambers . The weight of the gun is 17 pounds, 8 1/4 ozs.
This very fine, origional condition, gun sold in 2009 for 16,800 pounds stirling.

I'd like to see ol' George try that charge in this light duty fowling piece. I think he'd probably wear the gun home. *laughs*

I've fired a few rounds of 3 ounce loads out of a Holland & Holland double four bore at high ducks. But that gun was built like a cannon, weighed about 15 pounds. Quite a gun, and quite an experience I can assure you.


Destry