Howdy Folks.

Ive got a double 450 x 3 1/4" BPE. Its Manton with hammers. It looks like its had a hard life, Its been reblued, new stock, re-crowned, some pitts on the outside of the barrels. But the inside of the barrels look good Ive been trying to regulate it following all the info in Loading for the British Double and other info.

Its shooting all over the place (45 cm circle at 50 metres) with really no group at all, so measured the barrels. 1 is .470 and the other .472. Don't ask me how it got this way but it did. But as I said on the inside the barrels look pretty good.

I thought about getting a new mold made of .470 and have not ruled this out. But I also thought..,...why dont I get a mold made where I can put a jacketed .458 calibre bullet in it. And then with about a 10 ton press, just press the .458 out to the pre made mold size of .470.

Has anyone done that? Was it a success or failure? What do you think?

Yes I know the copper jacketed bullets will be hard on the bore. But the reality is Ill probably only fire 100 or so rounds thru the gun once I get it regulated before I either die or get to old to shoot it.

You may ask; why dont I just paper patch the .458? Because paper patching is a serious pain in the $#@*

Also, as I understand it the copper acts like a patch improving accuracy.

Over to you...........