My new "baby"... After reading too many stories about early elephant hunting in Africa, I had to have one of these... a 4 bore muzzleloader... it is an underhammer design... 36" smoothbore octagon barrel... weighs about 13Lbs which is a few pounds too light... and is going to really wallop a deer come muzzleloader season... This is a hole in a convienent target...

http://outcast.homeunix.org/uploads/coffee.JPG

I started with a "light load" of 150gr triple 7 under a 4 oz ball patched with a piece cut out of my bandana...

http://outcast.homeunix.org/uploads/DSCN0019.MOV

Then I stepped up to a "standard" load of 300gr triple 7 under a 4 oz ball. I probably won't be shooting many of these. This one looks a lot worse than it felt. It really was not too bad. It was the second shot at this level that almost got me. I lost my glasses and muffs and had a headache for a while...

http://outcast.homeunix.org/uploads/DSCN0020.MOV

The bottom line is that "baby" needs to gain some weight and then we are going to have some kind of fun.

You're still shooting "Light" loads. The old "English" service load (1/2 bullet wt. in powder) would be 875 grains of powder. Reminds me of an anecdote Lynton McKenzie told of a 165# Englishman shooting a 10,000# bull Elephant with a 4 Bore. The first one to get up was declared the winner!

I love those film clips - how did you attach them? My digital camera takes videos. Can I do the same thing you did with it?

The heaviest loads I have found documented for the 4 bore were about 16 drams or 438 grains of powder. They usually shot 12-14 dram (324-378 grain)loads. Assuming the 100+ year old black powder is equivelent to the modern stuff (?), I figure the energy from 300 grains of Triple 7 to be in this range. I still need to get the Chrony out to see what velocity and down range energy I am getting.

The videos are just simple links to the .mov files that were copied from the digital camera to a host web site.

The max load for the 4 bore was 20 drams of powder, 540 grains. But this was with older black powder which was not supposed to burn as good, this is from Bruce at Blue grouse. Although, Sam Baker used a DOUBLE load of black to stop a charge of a Water Buff(from Death in the Long Grass). Sounds like fun?!?! Can't wait til I get mine!!!!

In my 8 bore I used 300 grain ffg Swiss when I could find it,or the Elephant brand, and it shot the best,tried 777,pyrodex,and quick shot but nothing work as well as black. 300 grains,patched 915grain ball, wool over powder wad, and BOOM!! was great fun