Rock Island Auction Company has released a video where they shoot some of the largest non-military cartridges and rifles ever produced. The three calibers include the .700 Nitro Express, 4 bore and .950 JDJ. And if you are going to shoot this kind of hand cannons, then you first need to warm up with some low recoiling cartridges like 12 gauge and .470 Nitro Express. Sounds fun?  Let’s watch that video!

The .700 Nitro Express is a cartridge designed by Holland & Holland for hunting African dangerous game. It pushes a 1,000 grain projectile at 2,000 ft/s muzzle velocity and with a muzzle energy of 8,900 ft·lbf. This is perhaps the more common one among the three calibers if the word “common” can be used at all when describing such cartridges.

The 4 bore is designated as a shotgun gauge meaning that 4 equal spheres can be cast out of one pound of lead. The actual diameter of 4 bore projectile is 1.053″ or 26.7mm. In the image below, two 4 bore cartridges are compared to .17 HMR, .17 Hornet and .22 Hornet.

The humongous .950 JDJ rifle is made by SSK Industries. One shown in the video is the serial number 1 of very few such rifles ever made. The creator of both the rifle and the cartridge is J.D. Jones, the founder of SSK Industries and the famous wildcat cartridge designer mostly known for designing the JDJ and Whisper families of cartridges. The .950 JDJ is capable of accelerating a 3,600 grain bullet to muzzle velocity of 2,200 ft/s resulting in whopping 38,685 ft·lbf of muzzle energy.

Watch the description of the .950 JDJ rifle in the video below.

These rifles will be auctioned during December 2017 Premiere Firearms Auction at Rock Island Auction Company.