This beast is an 1874 elephant gun. It takes more powder than 4 large shot guns and places it in one load. It then takes 4oz of lead shot and packs it tight.
Stand tight, pull the trigger and try to stay upright....
It is a 1 1/4" bore - which in modern terms puts it at over 2 1/2 times the size of an Army anti-material (anti vehicle) sniper rifle....and well over 3x the size of the infamous 357 Magnum ammunition.
If you've ever heard of a 303 Lee Enfield...thats around 4x smaller than this elephant gun....
I was lucky enough to fire it 4 times. 3 times with a full load.... The first shot was "only" with a 3/4 load...and it still kicked worse than anything I have ever fired! Not many people can lay claim to have fired a full load elephant gun like this.
I am proud to say that I was one of three allowed to use this with the full shot load (only because I had handled the previous lower load and had come back for more...). Several other people shot it with reduced loads, and some were even turned away due to inexperience with guns. To give you an idea of the power it has and the respect it requires: The club that owns it hasn't ever shot it, and the owner has never shot it - it was too daunting for them. This is it's first time since the 1800's. The owner, although he doesn't shoot it, is good enough to loan it to the club.
An NRA shotgun coach shot it with a 3/4 load of lead and then went up to the full load, and said it was over double the kick...and it almost took him over backwards. He said it would be best if I didn't go to a full load.....but then again I had earlier been warned away from even using it on a 3/4 load, which I handled pretty well. Heck - Lots of the shotgun guys said to not even try it, because it is just right for sending you to hospital with more collar bone bits than intended...
Well...I'm pretty big, and my stance was good and tight. Yes, it kicked like nothing on earth, and you have to hang on for your life - but if you hold it right it doesn't kick or punch, but it pushes. Imagine someone thumping you really hard.....now imagine the same force, but without the punch....imagine it as a push. It doesn't hurt so much. So if you hold it right, you'll feel an immense kick - but as a push, not a punch.
A couple of my friends (Adrian, Rebecca and Richard "Raak" also tried it out, and they loved it as well (after flying backwards as they fired it....all being smaller than me - see, being weighty has an advantage!!!)
You can see where most of my fun was had, but we also tried the military rifles (modern and vintage), and the Western revolvers and gallery rifles. This was The first time with anything bigger than a .22 for Chris....and she loved it.
