Hi to all. Newbiw on this great forum. I am a hobby gunsmith who has built a dozen or so bolt action rifles and restocked another half dozen or so double shotguns. Partly to test my gunsmithing abilities and partly to frustrate our Canadian Firearms beurocrats, (I'm sorry sir, our records don't show that manufacturer ever making a gun in those products. We will have to spend a good chunk of our budget looking into this!) I would like to build a 3 barrel set based on a Fox Sterlingworth. The barrels would be the existing 12 bore plus one in 303 and one ind 450 BPE. I calculated the backthrust on the standing breach from a stiff 12 bore shell and both the 303 and 450 BPE are both slightly less. Unfortunately the 450 Nitro is somewhat more, explaining partly how sideclips may have become added to double rifles. I have learned a lot reading the forums and Ellis's book but I still have 2 questions.

1)Should the firing pins be turned to standard rifle dimensions and then bushed with gas escape channels in the standing breech? A couple of gunsmiths have suggested this as well as F.DeHaas in his book on re-chambering old single shot rifles. Has anyone had any experience with unbushed firing pins, good or bad?

2)Does anyone have a good recipe for a nitro for black load that duplicates the original 450 BPE? Would the 45-120 Sharps data be a good place to start?

Thanks again for the great forum,

Sportingrifle in the frozen North.

"Any man who would trade his liberty for a few pieces of gold, deserves neither and will probably lose both."