Hi Guys! Thanks for tuning in to another video on forgottenweapons.com
I am Ian McCollum, and I am here today at the Rock Island Auction Company taking a look at…
some of the guns that they're going to be selling in their upcoming December of 2017 firearms auction.
Specifically today, we have a two-bore double fifle and its little companion two-bore muzzle-loading pistol.
Now, two-bore is a measure of well - obviously bore diameter and it comes from the classic way of measuring…
barrel size which is how many…
well, how many round balls the size of the bore does it take to make one pound. This is a really kind of strange…
measuring technique, but it's what we still use today. That's what determines…
twelve-gauge A.K.A. twelve-bore, or twenty-bore, or pretty much any standard shotgun size.
Well the biggest rifles and shotguns that were ever actually really used in the field were four bore meaning that…
one pound of lead would make four round lead balls the size of the barrel diameter.
so, a four-bore is basically a…
one inch in diameter projectile, and four-bore hunting rifles - or stopping rifles as they're typically called - are…
really, really, huge, humongously-recoiling. Just…
incredibly intense firearms. They were not used much, typically they were called stopping rifles because their primary purpose was to…
stop a charging very large animal at very close range something…
where shooting it with any sort of standard sort of safari rifle would inevitably kill it.
But a stopping rifle was there for when you needed…
that cape buffalo that's twenty feet away right there and charging at you to just drop dead right there.
Because if you hit it and it runs over you and then dies five feet behind you, that doesn't really…
do you any good. Hence the "Stopping Rifles". And four-bore was as big as it got.
However, there are a few references out there to two-bore rifles and a number of them have been…
made. Now two-bores are pretty…
much rifles that are made for the spectacle of being a two-bore rifle and this is no exception
This [rifle], it's a double rifle here
if I convert two-bore into an inch measurement, it is a 1.32-inch - in diameter - barrel.
These things are huge it's
The measurement of two-bore means that it takes two lead balls this size to make a pound, so it's firing a…
3500 grain - A.K.A a half pound round lead ball that's about a quarter of a kilogram.
It is a black powder rifle so it's firing those at about…
1,200 feet per second, and that makes for about twelve thousand foot-pounds of muzzle energy.
Now, this rifle weighs 44 pounds, so it's really not practical to carry.
It's really very difficult just to shoulder and fire without a support underneath it, but…
it is a legitimately monstrous firearm, and that's what it was made for.
This was custom made to a customer's specifications by Stolzer and Son's, like I said out of Kansas.
And, um… They did a pretty cool job on it. Let's take a closer look.
Obviously, the first thing one does with a rifle like this is show the ammunition with some kind of standard-sized cartridges
so that you can get an idea for what it's really like.
So we'll start with something small - .50 BMG, and then as a comparison we have this.
That is actually not a towe-bore, that is only a four-bore cartridge.
To really get the full size, I have to zoom out a bit. And there Is our four-bore cartridge.
That's one point—
Basically one-and-a-third inches - about thirty-four millimeters in diameter.
It's ridiculously huge.
Now, the rifle itself is an under-lever style which means that we have a lever underneath.
Amazing wow that works… And if you rotate the lever, then you unlock the action and you can lift it up…
like so.
Once open you have something very, very similar to a standard double rifle - just…
far, far larger. Note that our .50 BMG cartridge in here…
uh…
just…
really loosely fits in.
What this under-lever is actually doing mechanically to lock, is it's rotating a locking wedge that - when closed…
locks into these two recesses and holds the barrel shut against the breech blocks.
So, that prevents it from opening when you fire, which would be extraordinarily bad.
The sights here are of the 'Express' type which would be appropriate and typical for this sort of rifle…
You can flip these up for progressively longer distances.
They're basically just rear leaf sights.
The Rifle has exposed hammers, so you would manually…
cock one - or both - hammers.
It has safety [mechanism]… safety latches here, which simply go forward and lock Into the hammer, preventing it from falling if you pull the trigger.
So a very simple safety there. And then the front trigger… let's see the front trigger is the left-hand barrel, and the rear trigger is the right-hand barrel.
The wood used here was chosen by the customer - it's a very… a very light-colored wood.
And… If we look closely on the side of the receiver there, you'll notice that this rifle has been named - appropriately - the "Double Deuce"
Naturally - to go along with it - the pistol is the "Little Deuce".
Now, I get the feeling this pistol is just kind of a fun, extra project…
It does not fire the same cartridge as the rifle, it is a muzzle-loading pistol.
It is rifled and it uses the same projectiles as the rifle, but not loaded into a cartridge and certainly not loaded with the same…
500 grain black powder charge.
On the pistol here, there is a typical percussion cap…
And this fires, well - this is a percussion pistol.
I find it very helpful that the original customer was left-handed, so this has a left-handed stock on it.
The cheek Riser here is actually quite thin, because in order to not shatter into a thousand pieces when you fire…
the stock Has to be quite thick. So, I figured you kind of have to put something like this Into proper perspective.
This thing is…
just
ridiculously large and…
forty-four pounds may not be the world's heaviest weight, but when a lot of it is hanging out at the end of the barrels…
it is quite a job to try and actually shoulder this thing.
[grunts]
And that's about the best I can do.
Well, one of the cool things about this rifle ts that the builder - Stolzer…
Actually has A YouTube channel of his own, and has done some really cool
documentation - video documentation - of the process of building this rifle and exactly what went Into it - along with its little companion pistol there.
So, if you're interested in finding out more about this - especially from a high-end sporting/gunsmithing perspective…
Definitely take a look at the description text, and check out their channel.
And, of course, also down there you'll find a link to Rock Island's catalog pages for both the rifle and the pistol, they're being sold separately…
And so, if you decide that you would really like to have one of these…
and you don't want to wait around to have a new one custom-built for you…
well, you can place a bid on this one right now.
It is coming up for sale in December, and that catalog page has Rock Island's pictures and description, and price estimate and all that sort…
of stuff, as well as a button right there where you can place a bid on it if you're so inclined.
Thanks for watching!