Gents:
I picked up a new toy yesterday and some of you big bore gents may like to see it. It is an Alex Henry single shot 8-bore harpoon gun but it will shoot standard 8-bore cartridges. Weight is 23 pounds, barrel length is 22 1/2 inches, bore diameter is .886", barrel width across the octagon flats is a bit over 2 inches and the diameter at the muzzle is 1.670. Should be fun to shoot when warm weather arrives. Made in 1874 and rifle sight is original.
Cheers,
Cal

I would like to see the harpoon that monster shot.

quote:

Originally posted by D Humbarger:
I would like to see the harpoon that monster shot.

This week I should be getting an example and will post a pic here.
cal

Cal that is a darn interesting firearm.

Pretty cool! I say harpoon a buff with that bad boy!
Not an 8 bore expert here as most people but what are the traditional bore and groove diameters of an 8 bore rifle? Looking at a few places it seems that diameter is more in line with a 7 bore.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/shotshellloads.html
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_(bore_diameter)
http://www.shootersforum.com/m...-4bore-findings.html

Wow, what a beauty.

So you can handle big game hunting, fishing-whaling and bowhunting season all in one!

I would like to see some video of you shooting that.

Cheers, Chris

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:

quote:

Originally posted by D Humbarger:
I would like to see the harpoon that monster shot.

This week I should be getting an example and will post a pic here.
cal

Can't wait to see the harpoon and any load data,
weight of projectile and charge of BP, etc., or any info in those regards.

I wonder if Moby Dick survived long enough to get a harpoon from one of those?

I finished listening to the unabridged audiobook MOBY DICK, a few months ago, 21 hours of driving time.
Author Herman Melville got due appreciation for that one only after his death,
so take heart, author Cal, you may be MORE famous one day.

I have had an interest in whaling trivia since the late 1980s when I did a brief stint on Shemya, AK,
where a 40-foot male sperm whale washed up, a teen-ager.
By the time I got there, all the ivory was gone. Poached!
The many faces of the illegal trade in ivory ...
It might have ended up as scrimshaw in an artsy-fartsy Maui, Hawaii "antique shop."

That is very cool. I have a thing for the old whalers...that was a crazy job in the day.

if you've not read about the whaleship Essex, you should. It's essentially what Melville's Moby Dick was inspired by.

It has the Elmer Fudd look.

This is really cool. It kinda looks like a sawed-off punt gun.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
That is very cool. I have a thing for the old whalers...that was a crazy job in the day.

if you've not read about the whaleship Essex, you should. It's essentially what Melville's Moby Dick was inspired by.

Yes I read about it after mention of it it in Moby Dick. If only Ahab could have had such a harpoon gun, the book might have really been a flop.
1820 sinking in the south Pacific of that Nantucket whaler, about midway between Hawaii and Easter Island:



From Wikipedia:

"Essex was an American whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts. The ship, captained by George Pollard, Jr., was widely known for being attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific Ocean in 1820 – an incident that served as inspiration for Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick."

Cal

Smooth bore ?

Nitro

quote:

Originally posted by nitro450exp:
Cal

Smooth bore ?

Nitro

Yes, it is smooth.
Cal

That is very nearly more a blunt instrument than a firearm! An amazing tool of a bygone era.

Whaling was insanely hazardous work, even with such weapons.

Whalers well and truly risked their lives every time they lowered boats.

Wild way to make a living!

Great acquisition!

Cal, please get a video of you and your new pet getting a Beluga ! That's a reasonable size to take, about 12' long .That should fit in your trophy room. Then relax with a bottle of 'Beluga beer'.
OT, a couple of years ago there was a beluga that went up the river in NJ. Everyone tried to save it from itself ! No one took the effort to look up belugs on the internet and learn that they have no problem going from salt to fresh water to follow a school of fish .

Actually, before the AR rumor mill begins, my plan is 1. buy the harpoon gun, 2. marry a native woman and, 3. hunt whales in the arctic.
The double rifles will sell fast and I become a whaler.
Cheers and smiles.
Cal

I always suspected that you had a secret taste for blubber.

quote:

I always suspected that you had a secret taste for blubber.

Mike: So you know my ex?
Cal

Cal:
I know you will let George borrow it to get it broken in. He will work up a great load, have a great shooting stance, and after he has readjusted/welded/super-glued/drilled and tapped the new front sight you will be set for life. Just thought I'd help with out.

Dutch (Flemish for Shit Disturber)

Dutch:
I's on the way to him now!
I missed the former owner to get the original projectile so that will wait a week until I go to town again. When in hand, I will post a pic here.
Cal

Great Cal, can't wait for his range reports!

Dutch

Go fire that darn thing....16drams + 1Ibs barbed steel bolt..

This is why I love AR. The only site on the web where a guy can find probably the most specialized and antiquated weapon on the planet and think, "HOLY SHIT I GOTTA OWN THAT"! Awesome!!!

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:
This is why I love AR. The only site on the web where a guy can find probably the most specialized and antiquated weapon on the planet and think, "HOLY SHIT I GOTTA OWN THAT"! Awesome!!!

I take no offense and resemble that

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:
This is why I love AR. The only site on the web where a guy can find probably the most specialized and antiquated weapon on the planet and think, "HOLY SHIT I GOTTA OWN THAT"! Awesome!!!

Tendrams:
No doubt! I need to get the smooth bore and chamber honed a bit as they are quite rough and also get a ball mould made to about .895". Then I will play with it for the summer, sell it to you, and you can upgrade your moniker to Twentydrams!

Also, I hope today to pick up the original projectile and will post a pic this evening (Alaska time).
Cheers, gents.
Cal

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:
This is why I love AR. The only site on the web where a guy can find probably the most specialized and antiquated weapon on the planet and think, "HOLY SHIT I GOTTA OWN THAT"! Awesome!!!

Tendrams:
No doubt! I need to get the smooth bore and chamber honed a bit as they are quite rough and also get a ball mould made to about .895". Then I will play with it for the summer, sell it to you, and you can upgrade your moniker to Twentydrams!

Also, I hope today to pick up the original projectile and will post a pic this evening (Alaska time).
Cheers, gents.
Cal

You gonna work up a shot load for that beast? Might make the world's greatest leopard follow-up gun.

Gents:
Here are a few more photos of the gun and the projectile and how it works. First, three photos. Note the button on the lever. It locks the hammer, trigger, and the lever. The diameter of the muzzle is 1.670". The breech block (lowered) is actually big enough for a 4-bore.








Now, to the projectile. While called a "harpoon gun" this weapon does not shoot a harpoon (although some projectiles had spring out fins to stabilize flight). This gun shoots a "bomb." Note the four photos below. The entire projectile weighs two pounds and is shown with a 3 1/4 and 4 1/4 inch 8-bore cases to compare size. The small 8-bore case contains the powder to propel the bomb. It holds 4 drams or 110 grains of black powder. I doubt the muzzle velocity was 100-200 fps--very slow. Remember shooting at a whale was at 10-15 feet. Now for the interesting part:

Notice the nose of the bomb and a wood pin passing through. The pin, just a match stick really, breaks on the recoil when fired. This wood pin held a weight in place and now that it is broken the weight slides black and hits a percussion cap. The cap ignites a fuse that burns for a few seconds and then ignites a charge of black powder in the body of the bomb. The capacity is 880 grains or two ounces of powder or 32 drams. This explosion within the whale was fatal. (Other designs used an explosion combined with a container of acid to kill the whale). Any questions, feel free to PM.

You can imagine the chances for accidents! Drop the bomb on the deck, drop it down the barrel too hard, bang the gun on the deck railing, etc., and the wood pin breaks and sets off the charge. OSHA did not exist then!
Cheers,
Cal

Trophy Room at Cal's Cabin...

Very interesting, Cal. Thanks for sharing the great photos and information.

That is a truly dangerous weapon!

Could be fun to try it on an elephant...

Might be the perfect "back-up gun" ...

That is pretty cool. If you need a mate on this whaling excursion......

Cal

Where and how does the explosive charge exit the dart ?
Does it destroy the dart ?

Thanks

Nitro

The first "Bang-Stick".

Damn, that's cool.

quote:

Originally posted by nitro450exp:
Cal

Where and how does the explosive charge exit the dart ?
Does it destroy the dart ?

Thanks

Nitro

Nitro:
The fuse burns through the small tube and the shell itself contains 880 grains of powder. It all explodes and nothing is recoverable.
Cal

(quote from Wikipedia):
************************************************
§6===Modern explosive harpoons===
Harpoons used in the whale fishery, 1887, including new design from Provincetown whalemen

The first use of explosives in the hunting of whales was made by the British South Sea Company in 1737, after some years of declining catches. A large fleet was sent, armed with cannon-fired harpoons. Although the weaponry was successful in killing the whales, most of the catch sunk before being retrieved. However, the system was still occasionally used, and underwent successive improvements at the hands of various inventors over the next century, including Abraham Stagholt in the 1770s and George Manby in the early 19th century.[8]

William Congreve, a British inventor who invented some of the first rockets for military use, designed a rocket-propelled harpoon for whaling in the 1820s. The shell was designed to explode on contact and impale the whale with the harpoon. The weapon was in turn attached by a line to the boat, and the hope was that the explosion would generate enough gas within the whale to keep it afloat for retrieval. Expeditions were sent out to try this new technology; many whales were killed, but most of them sank.[9] Although it was the invention of Foyn in the 1870s that modernized the whaling industry with regard to sperm whales, these earlier devices, called bomb lances did become widely used for the hunting of other whales, including humpbacks and Right whales.[8] A notable user of these early explosive harpoons was the American Thomas Welcome Roys in 1865, who set up a shore station in Seydisfjördur, Iceland. A slump in oil prices after the American Civil War forced their endeavor into bankruptcy in 1867.[10] Norwegian, Svend Foyn, also studied the American method in Iceland.[11]

In 1867, a Danish fireworks manufacturer, Gaetano Amici, patented a cannon fired harpoon, and in the same year, an Englishman, George Welch, patented a grenade harpoon very similar to Foyn's later successful invention. Another early version of the explosive harpoon was designed by Jacob Nicolai Walsøe, a Norwegian painter and inventor. His 1851 application was rejected by the Interior Ministry on the grounds that he had received public funding for his experiments.
Bomb lance whaling harpoon, pictured in 1878, prominent in the famous whaling legal case, Ghen v. Rich

In 1870, a Norwegian man named Svend Foyn successfully patented and pioneered the exploding the modern whaling harpoon and gun. His basic design is still in use today. He perceived the failings of other methods and solved these problems in his own system. He included, with the help of H.M.T. Esmark, a grenade tip that exploded inside the whale. This harpoon design also utilized a shaft that was connected to the head with a moveable joint. His original cannons were muzzle-loaded with special padding and also used a unique form of gunpowder. The cannons were later replaced with safer breech-loading types.[10][11]

Together with the steam-powered whale catcher, this development ushered in the modern age of commercial whaling. Euro-American whalers were now equipped to hunt faster and more powerful species, such as the rorquals. Because rorquals sank when they died, later versions of the exploding harpoon injected air into the carcass to keep it afloat.
(end quote)
**************************************************


Maybe the acid added to the bomb sometimes, as Cal mentioned, was a "gas generator" flotation method?
If this style whale bomb was not perfected until 1870, Alexander Henry's 1874 gun was right on the cutting edge (or exploding edge) of technology.

Get a load of this one, with a picture of the "exploded bomb lance" recovered from the whale?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghen_v._Rich

A low tech whale bomb delivery system, also pre-OSHA:

Now I want to get a muzzleloader builder to throw together a short bbl smoothbore 8 for me. Never know when we might go back to whale oil for heat and light.

Tendrams:
Just between you and I, after a few months or year of playing with the harpoon gun I probably will decide to pass it on (after all, it only has one barrel). Stay in touch and perhaps your dreams of being a whaler will come true with a vintage original, not a newbie.
Cheers, mate.
Cal

Gents:
An update to my harpoon or "bomb" gun. I was shooting it this weekend and here are some pics and some ballistics for you.

330 grains (12 drams) of FFg and a 1350-grain Paradox bullet saw 1486 fps, 6621 fpe, and 252 of Taylor's knock out value.

Free recoil is 159.36 ft. lb. and recoil velocity is 21.6 fps (from an internet calculation formula).

I have two 3.5" brass cases made. The rim is too large for a standard 8 and my 'smith only had enough brass for two. Shot 6 inches high at 25 yards but dead center for windage.

This week, after a few days of looking for grizzly, I will shoot a 1000-grain ball and 1620 grain conical for ballistic data. No doubt, this is a thumper!

Tendrams: PM me if interested.
Cheers, mates,
Cal

Photos by Steven Linkhart.

Damn that looks like fun.