Good day gents:

My .600 Wilkes has a groove diameter of .622. The Barnes bullets are .618 (This is from memory). The recovered bullets showed rifling engraved through the outside diameter of the bullet but NOT in the bands. I believe this keeps pressures low.

As to over stressed rifling--sure it is possible. My statement has been for 20 years that if any rifle (double or not) is shot to the original velocity, original bullet diameter and weight, and the powder is of the proper burning rate, all should be fine. However, and deviation will or may result in problems as well barrels that are excessively pitted, worn, too thin from reaming or sanding (shotguns here) etc.

My life with fine double rifles and my writing is based on practical everyday experience. I'm not a technical writer nor a user of fancy phrases such as Capstick was, but focus on shooting these fine firearms every day (except in the cold winter months here in Alaska). 20 yeas ago I began shooting my Damascus barreled shotguns and rifles loading smokeless to the same pressure and velocity as the original black powder load and never had a problem. Over the years I have listened to and read countless stories of the dangers of doing so and the new fears of banded solids seem to echo the same fears. However, I have never spoken to anyone who has actually seen a Damascus barrel blow up nor have I talked to anyone with actual experience of monometal bullets damaging a rifle--all know it to be true because someone else told them.

I'm not the last word on this stuff, but I can tell you what I have been shooting through my English doubles for two decades. You can see some of my rifles and ballistics on the 4-bore on my website.

When I can figure out how to reproduce the two pages of my .600 book about the Barnes bullets, I will post them here. I have also sent a scan of the pages to Barnes with permission to use them and/or reproduce them any way they wish. I have not been paid for anything I wrote on the banded solids.
Cal

PS. Let me try to put the scans on my website. That may be easier for someone of my limited computer knowledge.