The Firearm Blog

No other shoulder fired firearm throws a bigger mass of lead than the mighty 2 bore rifles. Ever since learning about the existence of these monster arms I have been fascinated by them. Sir Samuel Baker, the famous British adventurer, wrote about his personal 2 Bore rifle named, ironically, "Baby".

I was afraid to use it, but now and then as it was absolutely necessary, it was cleaned after months of staying loaded. On such occasions my men had the gratification of firing it, and the explosion was always accompanied by two men falling on their backs (one having propped up the shooter) and the "Baby" flying some yards behind them. This rifle was made by Holland and Holland, of Bond Street, and I could highly recommend it for the Goliath of Gath, but not for the men of A.D. 1866."

- Sir Samuel Baker -The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin Of The Nile, 1866 pp.138

Colin, of Stolzer & Son's Gunsmithing, apprenticed under Master Gunsmith Steve Zihn. I have previously covered the amazing 2 Bore that Steve built. Colin assisted Steve with some of the parts for that 2 Bore and recently has been building a 2 Bore himself and chronicling the build in detail on his website.

8 bore ball (middle), approx. 3500 grain 2 Bore ball (right)

He had two main design goals. The first was to slim down the profile of the pistol grip so it was easy hold. This was achieved by building a solid steel boxlock action with dimensions similar to that of an 8 Bore (.835″ in caliber vs. the 1.326″ of a 2 bore¹ ), but which could support the massive 2 bore barrel.

Note the beautiful animal's head hammer.

The second goal was to reduce the recoil as much as possible. In pursuit of lower felt recoil, Colin tried to make the weight of the rifle as close to 30 lbs as possible. By the time it was finished it weighed 24 lbs. For comparison that is more than a loaded M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW)! A recoil pad was added, something purists of these guns avoid (for reasons I cannot fathom).

Adding lead to the stock for weight and balance.

The finished rifle is a beautiful work of art and engineering.

The stock was made from a piece of American Black Walnut cut on Collin's own property.

Colin made matching accessories.

This blog post has only scratched the surface of the detailed documentation, photos and videos that Colin made while building the rifle. I highly recommend reading Colin's account of the process.

Colin told me that he plans on selling his creation. I do not know how much these custom rifles are worth, but I am sure he will discuss it with you if you are interested. His contact details can be found at Stolzer & Son's Gunsmithing.

A big thank you to Colin for providing me with information and letting me use his photos.

Last year I wrote about a massive 2 bore rifle, that was not yet fully complete. Colin Stolzer, of Stolzer & Son’s Gunsmithing, contacted me with some additional information and photos of the completed rifle. Colin build some of the parts of the rifle while he was an apprentice of Master Gunsmith Steve Zihn. Click to expand all the photos.

Colin also forwarded on an email from Steve Zihn. I wondered if it was a true rifle or a paradox gun (part smoothbore, part rifled). Steve confirms that it is a rifle:

it’s a real rifle, not a paradox gun. 36″ barrel , but it only came to 22 pounds. If I ever do another one I am going to make a recessed breach because you can’t get your hand around anything larger. that’s why it’s “only” 22 pounds. If I were to use a barrel that would get it up to 30 pounds I’d still have to wrap a stock around it. Then no normal man (even with big hands) can grip it and the recoil will cause it to jump out of you hands completely.

You can tell them about yourself 6′ 5″ tall, and 240 pounds . You shot the 4 bore and it was enough to cause you trouble. So you can just imagine what a 2 bore would be like (4X the recoil at the same scale) It will make a good post for you. then tell them about the 8 bores you are building. If there ask anything more I’ll chime in later and endorse you.

Colin says:

Back when I was apprenticing in his shop he was commissioned to build a 4 bore Muzzleloader in a similar style as the 2 bore.

When it was nearly finished and needed to be sighted in I got the pleasure of helping do that job. The 4 bore exerts 255 PSI at 32 FPS of felt recoil(if I remember the number correctly), and I can tell you that at 6′ 5″ and 240 pounds and being very experienced with big bore guns, it was still more than enough to push be back a quick two step. And after 2 shots left me black and blue for about 5″ around my shoulder area(part of that was because the rifle was built for a smaller statured person so it really didn’t fit me). But the owner of the 4 bore shot it once and sent it back to Steve to sell.

The man bought more gun than he could handle, and I believe it was more painful than he wanted to ever shoot again(speculation on my part).

Heh, personally I am pretty recoil sensitive. As much as I want to shoot one of these *big* bores, I think I would rather watch someone else shoot them

I asked Colin why these types of big bore guns are never seen with a muzzle brake:

In a smokeless powder rifle of these calibers a muzzlebrake would be a necessity but with blackpowder, which is what most of the big bore guns are, the powder doesn’t convert to gas expansion rapidly like smokeless so the benefits of a brake would be minimal.

And then you run into the aesthetics, the guys who buy these kinds of rifles are typically traditionalist and putting a muzzlebrake on a classic African rifle would be a sacrilege to most of them, so it just isn’t done. I’m honestly not sure a guy could build one of these is a smokeless configuration, by the time you got enough steel into the action to hold the pressure, you wouldn’t be able to hold the gun up, and even then the recoil would probably be literally lethal.

I’ve read pretty much everything I can find on big bore rifles, and almost every one of the classic dangerous game hunters wrote of the 2 and 4 bores giving them headaches, spinning them around(Sir Samuel Baker said his 2 bore would try to spin him around like a “weathercock in a hurricane”) nosebleeds, and concussions from the recoil. Sir Samuel Baker ended up with permanent nerve damage from using the 2 bore that effected him in his declining years to a point were it left him basically punch-drunk all the time and his wife had to care for him.

This type of rifle starts at $4500 and then goes up depending on what wood , engraving, checkering etc. you want.

Colin is currently specializing in building custom muzzle loaders, including double rifles and big bore 8 gauge/bore rifles. He can be contacted at his website Stolzer & Son’s Gunsmithing.

Billll @ Billlls Idle Mind took some photos of a friends’ 2-bore rifle.

More photos and load info here.
Later in the week I will be posting a heap of 2 Bore photos I have gotten from a gun maker who specializes in big bore rifles.

I have blogged about the S&H 2 Bore cartridge before. The problem is visualizing such a massive cartridge with no reference. I asked Jay at Schroeder & Hetzendorfer if he could take a photo featuring a 2 bore and a common cartridge and he kindly obliged.

9mm Parabellum vs. S&H 2-Bore. Click to expand the image.

9mm rifle cartridges are considered big bore, for example the .375 H&H*, yet the the caliber looks minuscule compared to the mighty 33mm (1.326″) caliber 2-Bore!

Individually the S&H 2-Bore Blackpowder Express cartridge cases sell for $49.50 each.

For more information and ordering visit Schroeder & Hetzendorfer.

A big thanks to Jay for the photo.
* Technically the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum uses a 9.5mm bullet.

Bill emailed me a photo of a friend’s 2-bore rifle and another of the 2-bore balls. The first photo really gives a sense of scale.

Click to expand the image

I assume the bigger balls are for the 2-bore
and the smaller for another gun

The guy in the photo is apparently a big guy (so you get the sense of scale)

The rest in the above photo came with the gun.

A big thanks to Bill for the photos.

More 2 bore goodness:

- S&H 2 Bore Blackpowder Express
- Cost of big bore ammunition
- 2 bore rifle photos

A while back I posted some photos of a 2 bore cartridge. While browsing the Nitro Express forum I came across this amazing photo of a 2 bore muzzleloader. All I can say is “Wow”.

I wonder which end hits harder

I read in another thread that this rifle was going to weight 32 lbs and has a 36″ barrel. To put this in perspective: the caliber, barrel length and weight are very similar to smaller swivel cannons!

I am not sure if this is a true rifle or a paradox gun (mostly smoothbore but rifling near the muzzle).

A few more photos of the rifle (click to expand):

The owner was considering a load of 275 – 325 grains of blackpowder firing 3500 grains of lead.

There is ‘big bore’ and then there is the 2 bore. Schroeder & Hetzendorfer make a cartridge called the S&H 2 Bore Blackpowder Express.

These photos are amazing

.700 nitro express next to 2 bore and 3500 grain bronze solid

.500 S&W, .45-70, .700 Nitro Express, 2 bore

The caliber equivalent of 2 bore (’bore’ is generally interchangeable with ‘gauge’ in regard to caliber) is 1.326″ or 33.68mm! The bronze solid bullet weights 3500 grain / 1/2 pound / 226.80 grams!

While technically fired from a rifle these are more like massive shotgun slugs: a heavy projectile at a low velocity. The 2500 grain bronze solid leaves the barrel at 1500 ft/s and with 17487 ft·lb of energy.

Apart from the nerve destroying recoil, heavy rifle, heavy ammo and expense these big bullets slow down dramatically after entering the game and hitting bone. A problem when hunting elephant.

They even come bigger than this. The 1 bore has a caliber of 1.67″. The A Guage/Bore, about 2″, was used for punt guns.

More info at Schroeder & Hetzendorfer.

ACE has an interesting article on the 4 bore.

UPDATE

Jay Schroeder emailed me the pricing for for the brass and bullets:

Cartridge Cases are $495.00 per 10 pack shipped.

Copper FN Solids are $295.00 per 10 pack shipped.

All components are USA made by Americans from American material.

Although it may seem expensive, you are probably not going to purchase more than one set of brass.