Sir Samuel Baker

Baby Cakes

One of Baker’s favorite rifles he referred to as “Baby,” a 2-bore muzzleloader though locals called it “child of a cannon.” Two-bore rifles fire either spherical balls in muzzleloaders or slugs of hardened lead in modern metallic cartridges. Additionally, solid bronze projectiles have been used. The nominal bore is 1.326″ (33.7 mm), and projectiles generally weigh 8 oz. Yes, a half-pound of lead! Imagine the recoil and thump provided on both ends of the exiting ball.

The velocity was relatively low, around a mere 1,500 feet per second at the muzzle but developed approximately 17,500 ft/lb. muzzle energy. Can you imagine shooting a ½-lb. lead projectile at 1,500 FPS? Talk about a real man!

Baby weighed a few ounces over 20 lbs. Baker states, “I had an extraordinary rifle that carried a half-pound percussion shell … it only weighed 20 lbs., thus with a charge often of drachms of powder … the recoil was so terrific that I spun around like a weathercock in a hurricane. I really dreaded my own rifle … I seldom fired it, but it is a curious fact that I never shot afire with that rifle without bagging.

This rifle was made by Holland & Holland of Bond Street, and I could highly recommend it for the Goliath of Gath, but not for the men of A.D. 1866.

After killing his quarry, Baker performed autopsies, studying wound channel and bullet behavior. He concluded round balls were more deadly in stopping charges of dangerous game, stating conical projectiles make too neat a wound and are apt to glance after striking a bone.

Sir Samuel was also a pioneer in experimenting with rifling rates of twist, having rifles built to his specifications. He determined large diameter balls propelled with heavy charges of black powder required slower twist rates with deep grooves. This was later called Forsyth rifling. Through experimentation, he surmised fast twist rates combined with shallow grooves would promote the ball to “trip over the rifling” — meaning the ball rips across rather than engaging the lands, adversely affecting accuracy.