Most of us are familiar with gauge designations for shotguns, the familiar 12, 16, 20, etc. Knowledgeable shooters know what the gauge number represents: the number of pure lead balls of a given diameter that weigh one pound. The bigger the bore, the fewer lead balls it takes to reach one pound, and the smaller the gauge number.

Some historically-minded shooters also know that gauge rifles were once quite common in England, where they use the term “bore” instead of “gauge”. In the black powder era, a 12-bore rifle was a fairly common big-game rig. Early dangerous-game hunters often used 8-bores or even 4-bores against buffalo and elephant. There’s an excellent article on the big 8s and 4s here.

I’d known about those beasts before. I did NOT know that there’s now a 2-bore, built by master gunsmith Giles Whittome. And yes, there’s video of very, very stupid brave men shooting this monster. Click here and be amazed. Mathematically-inclined readers no doubt realize we’re talking about a rifle that shoots HALF-POUND bullets. Oh, and the rounds they’re shooting in that video are reduced loads. Maximum loads burn 24 drams of black powder; that’s a full ounce-and-a-half or 656 grains!

I’ll stick to my friendly little .416 Rigby, thanks very much.