doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Two Affordable 8 bore Reilly's at auction

The movie is Appaloosa. The gun wasn't a real 8 gauge, but was a 12 ga. reproduction Colt 1878 with 8 gauge sleeves over the 12 ga. barrels to make it look like they were really 8 ga. barrels. Viggo Mortensen played Everett Hitch, who carried the gun. There is one scene where a real 8 ga. was used to film him loading real 8 ga. shells. The actual shells fired were 12 ga. blanks.

SRH

Hi Steve,

The top gun is a standard rebounding side lock, with old style hammers. Here is a little better photo, it is the second from the bottom on the rack. The guns in this photo are all Reilly's.

Argo, thanks for publicizing the 8 bore in todays auction, it went for a little more than I wanted to pay. LOL.

Thank you. Beautiful guns!

There are a large number of states that allow the use of the 8 gauge shotgun. The real beef in mst areas is with the Federal law not allowing its use for Migratory birds.
I was able to get the state of Arizona to allow the use of the 8 gauge for all large game except Bison and for use on preditors and birds that are not migratory.
I believe it is legal in most many states to hunt with an 8;gauge.

I have always wanted an 8 gauge, wish i hadn't of already spent my shotgun allotment for the year!

TL

http://mairsphotography.com

SXS40, here's the story on Terry's 8 bore. I got an email from him after I posted this line discussing the 8bore being sold at Rock Island. He asked me to give his 8 bore a little publicity too. That's why I posted it above. I got emails from readers of DGS about the gun. So voila...it was assessed at $1200-$1800 and went for $2700, still a bargain as 8 bores go. Terry should have asked me to be his advertising agent when he started liquidating his collection.

Just for my records, could you give the SN's of your Reilly's in the photo again, starting from the top and any address on the barrels/ribs? Any patent use numbers would be interesting. I think I have all of them but I know there's one of your guns I've missed someplace.

Gene Williams

I have them from top to bottom:
26537 - No rib address; left barrel E M Reilly Gun And Rifle Manufactures, 20 ga. SxS shotgun (rebored rifle?) U-L, hammer gun; (Buffum) (HWK). (I884). (Terry had this SN as 26557 in his list of guns sent to auction - but Amoskeag had it as 26537 in their advertisement at the sale. Which is it?) (Reilly's "3"'s and "5"'s can be difficult to distinguish).
24850 - Rebarrelled. No name. 12ga. Shotgun SxS. Steel Barrels by Norwich. Top lever, side lock. (Buffum) (1883)
22093 - E.M. Reilly & Co., (no address mentioned). 12ga. Shotgun SxS. Steel barrels, U-L, Hammer gun. Thomas Woodward action. (Buffum). (1879)
21761 - E.M. Reilly & Co., New Oxford Street, London & Rue Scribe, Paris. 500BPE. snap U-L, hammer gun. (1879)
14985 - E.M. Reilly & Co., Oxford Street, London. 16 ga. Shotgun SxS; Sidelock, U-L hammer gun, (Buffum). (1868)
15287 - E.M. Reilly & Co., Oxford Street, London. 12ga. Shotgun SxS; U-L, hammer gun. (Buffum). (1868) (this was 15287 on Terry's list but Amoskeag advertised it as 15283...which is it?)

I recall that you also have these two:

27750 - E.M. Reilly & Co., 277 Oxford Street, London. 12 ga. SxS. Whitworth steel barrels. bar-in-wood, push forward U-L, hammer gun.(SXS40) (late 1885)
..7869 - J.C. Reilly, New Oxford St. London; 12 ga; Shotgun; SxS; hammer gun, muzzle loader (Buffum). (1855, J.C. Reilly "7000" series)

By the way are geese still considered "migratory"? The ones here are lazy lard butts which don't "migrate anywhere" and just seem to hang out all year on the golf course ponds chewing up the greens. The greens keepers in Fairfax County seem to have resorted to letting foxes burrow into the bunker faces - they eat the geese.