Strongest Gun in the world

[jedi]

What are the 4 Bore and 700 Nitro used for? Are these for hunting elephant or some other big animal. Can't image the recoil pain on these guns.

 

[holejack1]

I'll stick with my nines, 45s, and 22s, thank you very much.

 

[Seancass]

What are the 4 Bore and 700 Nitro used for? Are these for hunting elephant or some other big animal.

Both are more than enough to stop an elephant charge. The 4 bore probably started as a punt gun for shooting flocks of migrating birds, then people started getting them made shoulder fired, then rifled.

The 700 NE came about when Holland and Holland said they would no longer make the 600 NE. Someone wanted another one and they said "No, but i guess we could make you something else..."

 

[matthock]

What are the 4 Bore and 700 Nitro used for? Are these for hunting elephant or some other big animal. Can't image the recoil pain on these guns.

I was curious yesterday when I was reading the thread, so I spent some Wikipedia time reading about it. The general idea of that class of guns (4 bore and the various Nitro Express varieties), like Seancass said, is to be able to stop any possible animal charging at you, up to and including an elephant. Which is pretty much the only thing I could imagine someone would use one for, what with the guns themselves each being custom built and costing from $60k into the 6 figure range for fancier ones and each round of factory .700 Nitro Express ammo costing $100, but when you expect to be charged by an elephant, I guess that's money well spent versus the alternative of getting squished

There's an interesting story on Wikipedia's 2 bore page about a Victorian-era British explorer who used one of them while exploring Africa.

2 bore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia