Trego's Mountain Ear

The internet has information available on the Boito B-300 pistols – and much of it is wrong. The first site I hit shows part of the problem: “The chamber is long enough to fit a 3″ shell and there are no issues loading, ejecting, etc. However, the (rifled) barrel is stamped “44 cal. ball”. I’m a bit mystified as to what “44 ball” means, other than a muzzle-loading term (this gun is centerfire).”

The Boito B-300/1 was built to meet the criteria of the National Firearms Act (1934).  The 44 ball cartridge listed on the barrel is one of the 44 cartridges used in the 1908 Marble Game Getter – a double-barrel, over and under pistol with a removable stock.  Union Metallic Cartridge corp loaded the 44 round ball cartridge with 34 grains of black powder and a 115 grain lead round ball.  A lead .433 caliber round ball weighs in at 122 grains, and the formula is diameter cubed x 1504.56 . . . so if I cube .425 and do the math I come up with the light side of 115.5 grains.  My calipers measure the bore at the muzzle at 0.416 – so the bore is just tight enough that the rifling can engage that .425 round ball.  It is rifled, and the barrel marking shows that it is intended for the UMC cartridge.  The builders and importers carefully built the pistol to avoid being a short barreled shotgun.  The critical measurements are the base diameter (.471”), and rim diameter (.520”).  Those figures for the 410 cartridge are base diameter (.470”), and rim diameter (.525”).   The barrel is marked for the UMC 44 ball cartridge – and the pistol chamber was cut to also (coincidentally?) fit the 3” 410.

I’m not particularly worried about the pressures of a 3 inch 410 cartridge – the Boito B-300/2 was built for a 44 magnum.  SAAMI lists the 44 mag’s pressure at 36,000 psi (bullet diameter from 0.429 to 0.432) while chamber pressure of the 3 inch 410 is 13,500 psi.  I’ve had no problems with the 3 inch 410 – but if you find one, remember it is marked for the 44 ball, not the magnum 410.

I suspect the idea to build a pistol that carefully missed classification as a sawed-off shotgun came after Thompson Center marketed the Contender in 45/410 – a barrel originally chambered in 45 Colt, chambered again in 410, with a special choke to neutralize the rifling.  That was a more expensive way of getting a legal small shot pistol.  Now with both Taurus and Smith and Wesson marketing 45/410 revolvers, it’s no big deal – but in the seventies Boito and Thompson Center were the alternatives. 

Boito was equally creative in exporting guns to Canada.  Canada’s legislation on short-barreled rifles and shotguns differs from the US – so the B-300 sold in Canada isn’t a pistol, and doesn’t need rifling:

It’s available in both 20 gauge and 410, and illegal as hell in the US – even if the name Boito Hiker is totally unthreatening. 

The Boito B-300/1 is not a common gun – I ran across two others that listed serial numbers and each was within 20 of my own 3 digit number.  As I reviewed the internet for more information, I learned that Rock Island Auctions has serial number 1554 coming up for auction on November 1.

The name Boito comes from Joao Boito – an Italian blacksmith who built shotguns in Brazil – he diversified around 1955, and Boito shotguns became a low price offering throughout the US and Canada by the mid-seventies.