Marrakai
(.416 member)
06/02/09 01:41 PM
Re: NFB loads in a Damascus rifle barrels.

I do it in all my vintage damascus doubles without reservation.
The pressure is significantly less than with a regulating black-powder load, therefore it is far kinder to the gun to use N-for-B.
Not to mention the corrosion issue when hunting all day with BP loads in the humid tropics.

Remember that at the turn of the previous century, N-for-B loads were offered for almost all express calibres, and hunters at the time simply switched to smokeless without a second thought, for the obvious advantages of no smoke, and no (less) corrosion. Whether they appreciated it or not, they also got more foot-pounds for less pressure. They certainly didn't send their damascus doubles off 'somewhere' to be tested or assessed, they just got stuck into it.

...and that was with cordite! Todays powders are far, far milder, consistent, and cooler-burning than those early smokeless propellants.


Shotguns are a different matter of course. It can be done, but it is much more difficult to produce smokeless shotshells with consistently lower pressure than BP.



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