W.H. Monk of Chester. Double 8 bore. Rebounding locks, full choke.On the Foreshore doing the job it was made for. Or it would be if the owner pointed it in the right place. Robin Varley
Mortimer & Son boxlock. It is very tight and it’s condition is very good. It is a 10 gauge, straight grip, it has borderline engraving, 28″ fluid steel barrels choked 3/4 in both barrels. It was initially proofed for 3 1/4″ shells at 4 tons. It was reproofed and chambered for 3 1/2 shells. The only deviation I can see from originality is a black spacer and 1 inch Silvers red recoil pad, possibly added to increase the lop which is currently 14 1/2″, drop at comb and heel are modern. It weighs 8.5 pounds. Pete Lester
This gun was made for a Mr F.W.Smith and sold on the 1st August 1929. It had 28″ steel barrels with 3-1/4″ chambers choked Full & Full. It weighed 8lbs 9oz and it was stipulated in the original order that there was to be no checkering on stock or forend. The original stock dimensions were: Length to centre 14 5/8″. Drop at comb 1-1/8″ Drop at heel 2-1/8″. In the intervening years the chambers were lengthened and the gun proofed for 3-1/2″(89mm) cartridges. The stock and forend were also checkered at some time.
How do I know all this? I used to own this gun and the info above came from Dickson’s when they were still in the Frederick Street shop. Sam Wilcox looked it up for me and I’ve just read all that info off Gary MacPherson’s business card that I wrote everything down on.I had the Silvers pattern rubber recoil pad fitted by former Churchill Gunmakers stocker Jeff Tyrrell who lived a couple of doors from my Mum in Sutton Coldfield.I often speculated on why the gun had been ordered with that specification. Across the Firth of Forth there are large numbers of greylag and pink foot geese in Fife and there also numbers to be found east of Edinburgh. Both these areas have rich arable farming and the geese flight into the fields to feed. It’s my belief that the gun was ordered with 28″ barrels to make it handier to use when hiding in a ditch or hedge alongside the fields. Omitting the checkering would, no doubt, have made the gun easier to clean because the rich soil can soon clog up checkering. The choice of a 3-1/4″ 10ga would give quite an improvement on 12 magnum performance. Whilst not as powerful as an 8ga, with it’s 28″ barrels it would have been a lot handier and with its 1-3/4oz shot load it wouldn’t have been far behind the bigger gun in performance.Rob Foster remarked that the gun would “kick like a mule”. Well it wasn’t that bad although with Winchester XX 2-1/4oz loads recoil was a bit brisk. I shot a number of geese with those big Winchesters and didn’t find the recoil excessive. It shot best with the 3-1/4″ load of 1-3/4oz. I would load that in a Winchester or Federal case trimmed to 3-1/4″, with a Remington SP10 wad and Blue Dot powder. Rolled turnover closure. These proved very effective and I once shot a carrion crow at 85yards with that load(measured 85 not guesstimated).
A masterpiece of bygone times. An 8 bore Westley Richards with their typical styling. Doll’s Head third bite, articulating top lever, caterpillar safety button and Damascus barrels, with single trigger. Ghazi Sakhawat Ali
A holy grail for some.
Open pix in new tabs to embiggen. Twice for small ones, as usual.
I love these old beasts for their stories as much as anything. As Steve said somewhere, few things are as functional today after 100+ years as some of these old beasts.
Viggo Mortensen with an 8 bore in the film “Appaloosa.” Hereford Breeders
I wondered what kind of 8 bore it was. I thought Parker but, no, on looking.
Steve Karnes 1878 Shotgun
Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) carries an 8 Gauge Double Barreled Shotgun in the film, referred to only as “The 8 Gauge” in the dialogue. To handle the vicious recoil of the massive weapon, Everett has a leather pad sewn into the shoulder of his coat to help absorb it. Since the only existing 8 Gauges today are antiques and are unsafe or too expensive to fire, an ingenious alternative was made. Armorer and gunsmith Steve Karnes built three “8 Gauges” for Gibbons Ltd. out of reproduction Colt 1878 shotguns, two of which fired 12 Gauge blanks with 8 Gauge sleeves over the barrels to increase the bore diameter and hide its real caliber, while one was built to chamber 8 Gauge inert rounds for scenes in which the gun was loaded, as the size between 8 and 12 Gauge is far too different for no one to notice. To see more on the production of the shotguns, visit the SK 1878 shotgun page, with actual information and images by Steve Karnes.
I googled Appaloosa (film) guns to get this and was amazed at the detail I found.