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Idly leafing through Baker's "Heyday of the Shotgun", a book bought but never before bothered with, I found this fun fact: Cogswell & Harrison came out with a 14 3/4 bore cartridge and the guns to go with it.

Has anyone here EVER seen such a gun "in the flesh"?

What would that mike out at, 0.700?

And why did they do it?

I shoot Coggies and feel that the 14 3/4 gauge is about useless. I much prefer the 11 5/8 gauge, lighter than a 10 but packs more wallop than a 12. The 2 3/16" shells are over square and have a very short shot string.

Remember a 14 3/4ga is smaller than a 14 not larger as is a 14/1. A 14ga = .693" while the 15ga is .677". The 14 3/4 would go .681" with the 15/1 at .685". I believe the proof house would have simply stamped the bore of a 14 3/4ga as a 15.

Only good thing I could think to say about one is at least one would not be tempted to shoot SAAMI spec shells from Wal-Mart through it.

8-Bore, your 11 5/8 should measure .737" dia. That does sort of have a nice ring to it, though a .747" should really get things Airborn @ a 11.16ga.

I suspect RMC could make brass hulls for any of these, at only one small extra cost.

The good thing with a 14 3/4 gauge is that if you run out of shells a couple of wraps of duct tape around the tube on a 16 gauge shell and you are back in business. Ain't that right jOe?

Around 1962-3 I spotted in Rowland Watson's place a nice sidelock Coggie that was originally this odd gauge, but had been re-barreled by him as a 12 bore. The original tube set had been chambered out to 12 bore too, as Watson said, "just for a bit of fun" and passed Proof.

I couldn't afford it at the time but my late Uncle Geoff picked it up, cased, for a �100. After he passed on, mad Aunty Norah disposed of it; probably for a balloon and two goldfish off the rag 'n bone man.

It made up into a really nice snakey gun, I recall him shooting a lovely bag of woodpigeon on an evening flight.

Eug

I've never seen one but have seen cartridges which are now valuable collector's items. As Eugene says; most will have been rechambered to a tight 12. I think they were just a gimmick but they somehow got Eley's to make a batch of ammo. Lagopus.....

Winchester initially intended their Model 59 autoloader to be a 14ga, and actually made a few in that gauge. I've seen a couple.

For 007's dyslexic nephew?

What about Cogswell & Harrison gun with 12g chamber and 14g bore at the 1/3 end of barrels. The friend of mine got one, but its not possible to shoot it, very hard kick. One of this odd gauges and rechambered?