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?

14ga measures to .693" (17.6mm). Many Full choke 12ga guns have a choke dia of .690" (17.53mm) or slightly less. It is not at all uncommon to see 12ga choke bbls under early proof rules marked 12B/14M or a 12ga bore with 14ga choke dia.

14 3/4 as a gauge is smaller than a 14ga & as such would measure .680" (17.27mm) if true to size. Standard for a 12ga bore is of course .729" (18.5mm).

Did I say choke? I said 1/3 of barrels were 14g. I don't remember chokes, but with chokes it was the tightest gun I ever saw.

No Geno, You did not say choke, I understood it was the forward third of the bbl. I was just saying it was no smaller than a full choke bbl as many older 12ga guns were choked down this small . With that much of the length of the bore being smaller it may give a slight increase in velocity which would account for the increase in recoil. Bore dia makes no difference in recoil other than its affect on the velocity.
Did this gun have choke to a still smaller dia than the 14ga bore? In your first post I took it the forward 1/3 remained cylinder, but your last one would tend to indicate it was choked from that bore.

Yes, this gun has chokes. If it was 14 3/4 Ga it makes sense. In present configuration its allmost useless double.