WOW.
I know the English have one and two bore shotguns for goose hunting.
Are you headed to Jurassic Park with that one? Is it a smooth bore or did you rifle it?
Like the pictures.
The maker said, in the text which accompanies his in-process photo essay, that he made it a smoothbore, because that's what Baker had in 1866. Whoa, hold the phone, in the three main books he wrote detailing his African adventures while Military Governor of the Sudan, Sir Samuel Baker specifically states that the most outstanding shot he ever made with his
Rifle, Baby, was the one in which a big Buffalo was downed, out on the mud-flats, between 500 and 600 yards with a tubular, brass, black-powder-filled, shell weighing 8 oz. Without rifling, the 4" long shell would tumble end-over-end. Such flight characteristics do not lead any logical person to believe a 500 to 600 yard shot to be remotely possible. That said, it's one heck of a gun that the maker built and it would be a truly unique experience to shoot it, even with just a round ball.
The entire quotation from
The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin Of The Nile, 1866. By Sir Samuel White Baker. pp. 138, is below and it clearly indicates a Rifle is what Baker's 2-Bore was. If anyone would know the difference between a rifle and a gun, it was Sir Samuel Baker who hunted various beasts all over the world.
"Among other weapons,
I had an extraordinary rifle that carried a half-pound percussion shell; this instrument of torture to the hunter was not sufficiently heavy for the weight of the projectile: it only weighted twenty pounds, thus with a charge of ten drachms of powder and a HALF-POUND shell, the recoil was so terrific, that I spun around like a weathercock in a hurricane. I really dreaded my own rifle, although I have been accustomed to heavy charges of powder and severe recoils for some years. None of my men could fire it, and it was looked upon as a species of awe, and it was name "
Jenna-El-Mootfah" (
Child of a Cannon) by the Arabs, which being a far too long of a name for practice, I christened it the "Baby", and the scream of this "Baby" loaded with a half-pound shell was always fatal. It was too severe, and I seldom fired it, but it is a curious fact that I never shot a fire with that rifle without bagging. The entire practice, during several years, was confined to about twenty shots. I was afraid to use it, but now and then as it was absolutelly necessary, it was cleaned after months of staying loaded. On such occasions my men had the gratification of firing it, and the explosion was always accompanied by two men falling on their backs (one having propped up the shooter) and the "Baby" flying some yards behind them. This rifle was made by Holland & Holland, of Bond Street, and I could highly recommend it for the Goliath of Gath, but not for the men of A.D. 1866."
M&T
