Incidentally I plan to eventually plunk a deer with the VHE 20 shooting the Brenneke slug and another time with my home cast and loaded Lyman Sabot Slug that’s 300-350 grains . Also got a decent buckshot handload for the 20’s .

Kinda hard to see but they’re pretty decent #2 Buck loads in my Fox and the little Parker does about the same at 25 yards .

I sold John Davis a 45/70 double rifle at the Fall Southern a few years ago. With factory ammo the gun was shooting apart. Even with factory 350 grain bullets. I needed a lighter bullet and faster. I went with a 300 grain Bullet and started bumping up the speed until the bullets were shooting side by side at 50 yards. I shot this group at 100 yards and open sights. The deer fell to one shot at about 125 yards.

That's great !

I've yet to have the pleasure of trying to make a double rifle perform .

But I am sure one of these days I just might .

Heck I've got 4 drillings I've yet to kill a deer with . Strangely I was chomping at the bit for a drilling but after messing with the ones we have I'm not as wound up as I was . The neatest one is a hammer Kettner that's 16-16 and 10.75x65R Collath . I have a pair that are 7x57R ones a Kerner with 16 gauge shotfun barrels and the others a JP Sauer from the eastern block days that's a 12 gauge double over 7x57R and lastly I have a hammer guild gun that's 16-16 x 8x46 RWS I believe it is . Used to have a Antonio Zoli combo gun that was 12-7x57R but I sent that one packing as I never really cared for it .

One aspect that I don't noticed addressed here is choke. I would personally be very apprehensive about shooting a solid round ball through anything tighter than half choke (modified). Most British makers would mark their barrels "not for ball" if half choke or tighter.

Also... the balls should be cast of pure lead, not an alloy. This will reduce strain of compression through any choke.

Just my perspective.

Back in the day before rifled slugs, our U.S. ammunition companies loaded a one ounce ball in 12-gauge, 7/8 ounce in 16-gauge, 5/8 ounce in 20-gauge and 82 grains in .410-bore. All well smaller than the choke would be.

All three of my W&C Scotts have the "Not for Ball" stamp on the underside the tubes as well as the 10 gauge fluid steel barreled Greener I had . IF memory serves the muzzles on my 10 gauge Scott measure .720 ish . It never was great with buckshot but I killed one deer with it and went on to another gun . If I ever quit adding 10's I'm quite sure my 10 gauge buckshot and slug gun will be my EH that's factory 28" unless of course I find a factory original EH that's 24 or 26 inches .

I have a GH 12 with factory Vulcan replacement barrels. For day to day shooting I lament relieving the left barrel choke to improved cylinder/.010. The right barrel remains untouched at .012. The good news is that 1oz slugs print side by side at 25 yards.

Only one I’ve ever had opened is a WW Greener D40 12 gauge I bought when I was 14 . Took it to Clark Brothers I n Warrenton VA after I bought it and they told me the chambers should be lengthened a 1/4” it was 2 1/2” and I had it done think it cost me $40 in 1976 . Later I had the left choke opened to MOD the gun was light IC and a bit xtra F .

I was able to cast more both sizes of the roundballs today and I finally remembered to order the Precision Reloading steel shot wads that I was instructed to use . I however ordered both 12 gauge wads ones for 2 3/4" and the other is for 3" as well as the 10 gauge wad . And felt 20 and 28 gauge wads for cushioning .

Hopefully sometime next week I'll be able to get some idea whether this is going to fly or not :whistle:

In hindsight I wish I'd looked to see if they made a 16 gauge wad of the same description as these and I'd have ordered a bag of them . Incidently a bag holds 100 wads , so I should have enough to get me thru all the 12 gauge stuff for perhaps 7 or 8 guns in 2 3/4" and 2 in 3" . I may however need more 10 gauge wads :cool: