The Royal Armouries 'Millennium gun'

This 2 bore centrefire breech-loading sporting rifle was commissioned to commemorate the Millenium in 2000. It is the largest rifle made since the 19th century. Engraved by Shaun Banks, the gun barrel and action were made by Don Custerson.

It was initiated in the early 1990s through the interest of Giles Whittome, firearms enthusiast and owner of a gun making businesses, in the museum’s uniquely surviving Alexander Henry side-hammer falling-block breech harpoon gun of the 1880s.

Prompted by this, and having already built a 4 bore rifle using the same action, Whittome proposed the creation for the Royal Armouries of a two-bore rifle, firing a gigantic ½ pound projectile, as an item to commemorate the millennium. The offer gladly accepted the gun was built using modern methods and materials, but designed for black powder, as used in the 19th century, to make the recoil manageable. In this case, decoration took second place, confined to classical English scrollwork and an exquisite engraving of Henry VIII’s horned helmet (0000) on the nocksform.