I have a Purdey hammergun that started out as a 14 bore percussion gun in the 1840s. In the 1870s it was returned to Purdey and they converted it to a breechloader. It has 16 bore chambers and was intended to use the Kynoch thin wall brass shells. The inner diameter of the Kynoch 16s were about the same as 14 bore. I shoot Magtech brass shells in it now and they are also thin wall.
It was common in England when converting muzzleloaders to breechloaders to go to the next smaller chamber because the outside diameter of the barrels didn't allow for the chamber size to match the bore size.
Amazing how much trouble they went to to reuse those old barrels.
Best,
Mike
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