Had a fun day at the range yesterday. A friend brought out an antique 4 gage gun. It has a shotgun barrel as well as a rifle barrel. He also brought out a few "squib" loads (2 oz. #4 and 150 grains 2F black powder). Got a chance to squeeze a round off. Man, does that dust a clay bird. The gun weighs about 17 pounds with the shotgun barrel. Recoil wasn't bad at all.

A 4 gage round next to a 12 gage load. Empty brass are about $10 apiece.


"Pull"


"Boom!"

Great Goose Gun

but sadly not legal in WI

now a muzzle loading 4 bore would be

Not sure if there are any traditional muzzleloaders that are safe for non-toxic shot, other than bismuth.
This 4 gage is an H&H. Definitely not shooting steel out of that.

Kills on both ends.

In all honesty, these loads were far more manageable than a 3 inch turkey load out of a 12 gage.

Interesting, I wondered what a 4 gauge looked like

Good lord you prob got whiplash

so cool!!!

Got to shoot one a few years ago. Guy loaded a few with blackpowder and some with smokeless. The smokeless shells were not much fun. He was telling us it was his grandfather's gun of choice for driven deer hunts back in New York.

Awesome

Wow! I would have thought it would have to be tank-mounted to shoot!

Cool pics!

It's a good thing your i strong and in shape. A gun that heavy is not fun to swing and control but the weight sure helps with recoil. sounds like a really cool experience. Biggest shotguns I the seen are 10g and I have never shot one. it's like shooting a 50bmg just cool to have gotten the experience.

The gun's owner has shot it with the rifle barrel and load. 1700 grain slug with a LOT of blue dot behind it. He shot it once from a lead sled with 25# on it, and won't again.

Several of us shot it, including my sister. All said it wasn't that bad. Again though, these were half-ish loads. I can see where full loads would be less than fun.

And yes, it was worth it for the experience alone.

And for sure the weight helps. You sure didn't just throw it up to your shoulder. And once you got it swinging, it stayed swinging.

Any idea what the choke is? Lots of old guns seem to be full. even with a low power charge 2 Oz of shot out of a full I bet there was only a very fine dust left of the clay. Did you get any video?

The owner has not measured for a choke.

There is a video on the club's facebook page, maybe this link will work to take you there? I am not on facebook, so not sure it'll work well.

Smoky Hollow Muzzleloaders

And yes, it completely dusts a clay bird.

What caliber is the rifle barrel?