From across the range, the long barrels of his Victorian-era 8-gauge shotgun could be spotted. I was chomping at the bit to shoot it. A double-barrel percussion shotgun isn’t your everyday range gun and finding one that works is pretty rare. When Mark first came across this relic, it was in pretty bad shape – like most of his projects. The Damascus barrels were barely held together with two solder points and some plumbers glue, just some of the obstacles that had to be handled to bring this gun back to life.
Enthusiastically, Mark can tell you every detail of his restoration process, even the reasoning behind the fresh smell of stain on the stock of his Enfield No. 4 Mk 2. As always, unexpected issues make meeting deadlines a race. Restored for a movie prop company, you can easily imagine a stagecoach driver throwing down the reins and grabbing this double-barrel shotgun.
I mean, when was the last time you got to shoot a black-powder shotgun? It was an epic experience. This William Moore & Co. double-barrel percussion 8ga shotgun dates back to the 1840s and takes 200 grains of black powder and 3 ounces of shot. That is nothing to mess around with because of how cumbersome and, honestly, how dangerous loading this gun can be. Mark only let a few people shoot it. I was one of the chosen few. Tediously, he extracted the wads from an old can along with the projectiles and various loading components. Waiting for the neighboring booth attendee to finish his cigar, the black powder cautiously came out. Making sure the 150-year-old shotgun was good to go, a crowd assembled to witness this antique launch some lead downrange.