Sarah Palin's presence in the lower 48 means the Arctic ice cap can finally return.
Wednesday - January 19, 2011
Enough Gun, Maybe
One of the nice parts about being an American is the guns thing. The old Second Amendment. “2A”, “RKBA”, ”A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.
But once you get beyond the “Oh goody, gonna get ma’se’f a gunnn” stage, once you’ve acquired a small collection beyond the point of specific “need” for different shooting situations, you find out that there are all sorts of firearms out there. Military surplus, “tactical” (I hate that word), competition, collectible antiques and rarities, you name it. 7 or 8 styles of repeaters and at least as many styles of single shot models. Pneumatic firearms from BB guns to ones you can hunt buffalo with. Smokeless and black powder. Cartridge and muzzle loading. Centerfire, rimfire, percussion cap, flintlock, wheel lock, inline, pistol, rifles, shotguns, ... the list is nearly endless and the variations are infinite. Which means no gun collection is ever complete, really.
My own personal taste in long arms tends towards orphan calibers and large calibers. I like the pretty ones with graceful lines, well carved nicely figured wood, and nicely polished deeply blued metal. I like a bit of engraving if I can afford it, but those guns that are solid engraving and gold plate turn me off. Not that I’d turn down a new KSG bullpup shotgun, if I had the cash. Pure awesomeness, and so ugly and practical that it’s beautiful.
So anyway, I get this email today, telling me that the Italian gun maker Davide Pedersolli has shipped a new supply of their Gibbs Hunter rifles over to this side of the pond, where they are sold as the Pedersoli African Hunter model.
Ain’t that a beaut? Pedersoli makes such pretty guns. This one is a reproduction of English gunsmith George Gibbs’ 1865 design: it’s a forward hammer, pegged barrel, half stock, 1/16 octogonal, 15/16 round barreled percussion muzzle loading firearm. This one just happens to be a rifle, although a nearly identical shotgun and a heavier smaller caliber target rifle are also available. Actually it’s a carbine, because it’s only 45.3” long.
The thing that makes this one a tad unusual is it’s caliber. Almost all of the muzzle loading hunting rifles for sale in the USA are 50 caliber. A half inch bore. There are a few 45s and 54s, but they aren’t that common. Most of the Civil War reproduction rifles are 58 caliber, but I don’t know if they get used for hunting; a full length 19th century military arm is a bit long to go dragging through the bushes. The Gibbs rifle is 72 caliber. Yup. That’s the same diameter as a 12 gauge shotgun, and it fires bullets. Well, it fires round lead balls.
Holy Hole! That’s a whole lotta bullet to fill that thing up!
What use is this thing? Well, here’s the thing. Black powder is an explosive. A weak one, but it’s still an explosive. As such, it only generates a certain amount of gas and a certain amount of pressure. It turns out that one way to get more power from a black powder gun is to use a heavier bullet, which often shoots a bit faster than a lighter bullet with the same exact powder charge. Another way is to use a bigger powder charge, but you need a heavier, stronger gun to contain it, and a longer barrel to get the most from it. Today’s black powder rifles - I should say muzzle loaders, since very few of them ever see any actual black powder, because the modern smoky stuff is a) much cleaner, b) much safer, c) much more powerful, and d) actually a rough nitrocellulose (smokeless) powder recipe; they are not actual charcoal/salt peter/sulfur mixtures, which is what real black powder is - anyway, today’s muzzle loading rifles use modern high powered shotgun primers, saboted modern bullets, and quite large charges of the modern propellants, which can push about 300 grains worth of bullet downrange at around 2000 feet per second. This makes them about equal to a modern .45-70, which is plenty enough gun to hunt deer or elk out to 150 yards, which is about as far as most people can hunt, shoot, or track game with any accuracy.
But it wasn’t like that in the old days. And for the same reason that all this modern development went on with this antique kind of firearm: even a 54 caliber round lead ball doesn’t pack enough whack to drop deer in their tracks at longer ranges. The old school solution was just to use a bigger bullet. Bigger in terms of caliber. And that’s why the Gibbs rifle is 72 caliber. It shoots a .715” lead ball that weighs 550 grains, at the same velocity and lack of aerodynamic efficiency that a 50 caliber Kentucky style rifle would shoot a 177 grain .490” lead ball. So it packs a lot more power, and makes a much bigger hole in things. Roughly 3 times as much power and more than double the hole size. Pretty impressive, and with it’s 9.5lb mass, recoil won’t be too evil from even the maximum 120 grain powder charge, which might push that big soft lead ball at 1500fps. The recommended 100 grain charge should drop deer or smaller elk in their tracks out to about 100 yards. Better than that. It should just about splat them.
All this for only $1450. And it’s a near guarantee that none of your smoke pole shooting buddies will have one. Uniqueness - “I’ve got the only one around” - is another enjoyable aspect of that old 2A freedom. It’s why I own orphan guns and do all my own ammo reloading.
And this is just the beginning of this post ...
So we’ve got a very pretty one shot 12 gauge smoky deer smasher. Grand. No, actually, it’s a grand and a half. Too rich for my blood. What if you could pack that kind of wallop in a more practical firearm? Something with, oh I don’t know, how about with more than just one shot? And for far less scratch?
You can. Have your cake and get bruised by it too: among others, Mossberg now makes a 12 gauge that takes the new 3 1/2” shells, and Lightfield makes 3 1/2” slug ammunition.
Mossberg’s model 835, a fully rifled pump action shotgun
$575 MSRP, which probably means about $450 at your gun shop. $470 and you get an extra regular barrel too. Coming in an inch shorter and 2 pounds lighter than the Pedersoli, their new model 835 pump gun has been built to handle the extra punishment that the 3 1/2” shells dish out. What punishment? Shotguns are very low pressure firearms. They have to be, otherwise the barrels would be really thick and they’d weigh a ton. The 3 1/2” 12 gauge shell runs at 22% higher pressure than the older 3” and 2 3/4” shells. So it takes a stronger weapon to use them. I’m pretty sure that the 3 1/2” shell came about because of the “green” trend to bismuth, steel, and other kinds of non-lead shot. Those other metals are much harder than steel and less dense, so they exert more pressure on the barrel when fired, and you need more volume of them to get the same weight of pellets in a given load. And due to their often lesser density, those “green” pellets need to be fired faster to have the same remaining energy downrange as the older slower lead pellets. And that means higher chamber pressure, which in turn requires a stronger firearm. Not that the new “high” pressure is anything impressive relative to any other gun. It isn’t. It’s still in the low black pressure arena, less than a quarter of the pressure that a modern rifle produces. But it’s a big step up for 12 gauge shotguns.
The Lightfield 3 1/2” slug load is unusual. It’s the only 3 1/2” slug load I could find, and it’s a bit of an old school design. Assuming “old school” is from 1990. It uses a flat ended, wide meplat soft lead slug that has an attached plastic sabot. That’s unusual; everybody else uses a peel away sabot that falls off just past the muzzle, leaving a much smaller and more aerodynamic bullet to do the job.
before and after:
the lightfield slug and it’s “detach on impact” sabot
The Lightfield slug weighs 600 grains, about 1 3/8 ounces. It leaves the barrel at 1900fps, and makes a 72 caliber hole in things even before it starts to expand. At close range this thing generates 4750 lb/ft of energy, which is in the “light elephant” range. Unfortunately it’s about as aerodynamic as a paint can, so by 100 yards the power is down to just over a ton. But a ton is still quite a lot, more than many deer rifles can make at any distance. And there’s still that thumb sized hole going in, and the 1 1/4” hole coming out. Maybe. Some places call this a dangerous game load. And it could be I guess, as long as the danger isn’t all that great. Lions and tigers, sure. Thin skin, thin chests and thin rib bones. Bears? Oh my. Well, small bears. Maybe medium bears. Big bears - and I’m talking BIG big bears, 900lbs and up - I’d want more. But in a pinch, I’d be glad that the Mossie can carry 6 rounds, because the first 2 are just gonna get his attention and then piss him off. Besides, you could get lucky and get a head shot.
Still want more? Fine. For a mere $1000 more than that Pedersoli, you can get a similar looking rifle from the October Country company, in the same caliber that can handle double the powder charge, and push that 550 grain round ball to nearly 2100 feet per second. That’s about 20% more powerful than a modern .458 Winchester Magnum (500gr @ 2000fps). From black powder!
“There is no more fatal policy in hunting dangerous game than a contempt of the animal, exhibited by a selection of weapons of inferior caliber. Common sense should be the guide, and surely it requires no extraordinary intelligence to understand that a big animal requires a big bullet, and that a big bullet requires a corresponding charge of powder, which necessitates a heavy rifle.“
- Sir Samuel White Baker, “Wild Beasts and Their Ways.”
The basic rifle comes with a curly maple stock. It features an octagon 28” barrel. The taper on the October Country Sporting Rifle is 1-1/4” to 1-1/8” at 36” long. The pull length is 13-3/4” and the lock is an English bar lock from L&R Lock Co. The twist is 1 in 104”, 8 lands, 8 wide groove and .007 deep with 7/8” thread. The breech plug is a Manton style hooked patent with 1/4 x 28 nipple threads. Each rifle is equipped with and English Style V sight with a steel blade front sight for pinpoint accuracy. The rifles are iron mounted and cold brown stained. weight, only 12 pounds and 45” total length. The guns are available in , .62 (16 bore), .69 (14 bore) and .72 (12 bore).
This rifle is designed using the principals advocated by Lt. James Forsythe, MA in his book “The Sporting Rifle and Its Projectiles”. Lt. Forsythe hunted extensively in India & Africa during the end of muzzleloading era. He developed the theory of using a large bore round ball with massive charges of black powder. By utilizing ultra slow twist rifling, the projectile can be delivered with good accuracy and devastating results. The OC Big Bore Sporting Rifle delivers the raw; knock down power demanded by today’s discriminating black powder hunter. By any standard, this is an awesome rifle.
I’m not sure that I subscribe to Lt. Forsythe’s idea. I don’t like that ultra-slow rifling idea, even though the twist on this gun is a slight bit faster than the 1 turn in 117” that the Greenhill formula specifies. [Greenhill devised a formula to calculate the minimum rifling twist needed to stabilize a projectile in flight. Seriously excessive twist is a military detriment at extreme ranges because it causes “over stabilization”, which means the point of the projectile doesn’t follow the arc of the trajectory, it stays nose up. This means that the projectile either hits the target going sideways, or that it tumbles at extreme range. We’re talking miles downrange here: Greenhill did his work for the artillery boys, and his formula was only later adapted to small arms.] Faster twist is better. I’m more a believer in the research proved ideas of Whitworth [another great gun history read! See Queen Victoria shoot a bulls-eye at 1000 yards!]. BUT ... everything concerning firearms is even more relative than anything else you will ever deal with. Whitworth concluded that the optimal black powder rifle was 45 caliber with a 1 turn in 20” rifling twist, firing 500-550 grain bullets. The October Country rifle, and the old time African big bore rifles, fired round lead balls. Maybe the lead was alloyed with tin to 1 part in 16, as the British Army did in the Raj. But we’re talking balls here, not bullets. And even 1:16 lead is still pretty soft. Put it all together, and a fast twist on a round ball that is easily deformed may make it immediately unstable upon penetration. Just about no twist at all could be the best approach, and hope for the best. I don’t think anyone has taken a fresh look at Lt. Forsythe’s observations in a long long time.
So there you have it. Almost enough gun for anything, almost enough shotgun for anything, and enough gun for anything. Plus if it isn’t or if you miss, the sulfurous smoke cloud from 250 grains of burnt black powder ought to be big enough to hide you and your scent (of panic!) from the biggest elephant (who is now the angriest elephant!!) out there. And the big boom may have stunned his ears so he can’t hear you running away as fast as you can!
One of my gripes with all large caliber firearms is their useful range. It’s pretty short. The bullets don’t go super fast, whether they’re coming from a 12 gauge, a .45-70, or even a .458 Watts. We’re talking 2400fps at the absolute maximum, and that’s from the biggest and baddest of the elephant guns. The bullets aren’t very aerodynamic. Together this makes them all short range affairs. Amazingly powerful, but still short range. Sure, why not take a .50 BMG into the field? No problem. As long as you can carry 30lbs worth of gun and 10lb worth of ammunition up and down hills and through the forest. And most hunters consider an 8lb rifle too heavy!
Worse is that little bugaboo called sectional density (mass of bullet / square of it’s diameter). Round lead balls and shotgun slugs don’t have any. Well, very little. Big long bullets that are extra heavy for their diameter have lots. And, given sufficient rotational speed and impact velocity, bullets with high sectional density will just plow through anything. It’s something to keep in mind when you realize that the vital bits on a big bear or a Cape Buffalo are about 3 feet inside the critter, past lots of muscle and really thick skin.
What is sufficient sectional density? For really large game with really large teeth or hooves, you want something in the .300 or better range. That’s a 300 grain .375” bullet, or a 500 grain .458” bullet. But it’s a 1075 grain .715” bullet, almost double the weight of the round ball and 80% more than the shotgun slug. A bullet with a greater sectional density is longer than one with less, and longer bullets have a longer moment arm. That means that they can deform (mushroom) just as much as the shorter bullets, yet still remain gyroscopically stable.
What is sufficient rotational velocity? Now we ARE talking about normal looking bullets, not round balls. You need to spin the bullet so that it penetrates in a straight line as long as possible, even perhaps after it becomes dynamically unstable due to excessive expansion. Black powder rifles designed to shoot round balls and rifled shotguns designed to shoot slugs don’t get much of it. 1 turn in 75” to 1 turn in 66” is common for the old smoke poles. Rifled shotguns get about 1 turn in 35”, maybe 1 turn in 28”. Modern high velocity rifles go about 1 turn in 12” or faster. 1 in 9” is not uncommon. The old Greenhill formula works in air. Great. Whoopee. Bullets need to work in flesh. Assuming the density of flesh is about equal to the density of water, that’s 900 times denser than air. So the bullet needs to rotate 30 times faster. 1 turn in about 2 to 4 inches. They don’t make rifling that fast, and that kind of rotational inertia is beyond the strength of even slow moving lead bullets. So try to get the fastest twist you can find, and accept that the deeper your bullet needs to penetrate, the greater the odds are that it will hook a left or a right at some point.
But there is more to hunting than just hole size and penetration. Hole size is great. The bigger the better, and if you can get a big hole going in and a bigger hole going out you’re ahead of the game. Blunt tip, fat meplat bullets like the flat ended shotgun slug pictured here put a big entrance hole in things. Round ball bullets put a nice size hole - their diameter actually - in things. Pointy spitzer bullets create a needle size entrance hole. Then they all expand, creating a larger hole inside. About half the bullet’s energy is used up on hitting the target and on creating what’s called the temporary wound channel. That’s the distance the creature’s internals are instantly pushed out of the way. Then they spring back, but both those impacts together tend to stun the animal, and sometimes knock it out or at least over. Bigger faster blunter bullets hit hardest in these two aspects. As the bullet expands as it travels through, it cuts what is called a permanent wound channel. It looks like this:
The bigger that channel is, the faster your game animal will succumb. Anything over 1/2” is lethal on nearly any animal, but a 1” plus wound channel will do the job much faster. Yes, this is where I do my annual plug for my man Ulf’s seminal work on terminal ballistics. If you hunt, or if you really want to understand “killing power”, spend an hour or so and read it. At the very least, you’ll see that faster is only really better to flatten long range trajectory: what you really want is for your bullet to arrive on target at about 1600 - 1800 fps. Of course that ignores “impact stunning”, which I believe is a very real thing. Pretty sure that’s called the Taylor Knock Out formula (diameter * weight in grains/7000 * velocity). Which Ulf disdains. Oh well. Professional hunters in Africa have long considered 2400fps to be the perfect velocity for the best mix of stunning and penetration. Given that those monster blunt bullets loose velocity very quickly, and that shots at elephants etc are generally taken at well under 100 yards, the best impact velocity might be as high as 2200fps, but that depends on bullet shape and construction as well.
GET ME OUT OF HERE ...
Posted by
Drew458
on 01/19/2011 at 10:27 PM
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