Guys,

Thanks for the answers so far.

I am a Mechanical Engineer, so the explanations of the steel properties are well understood, although I am no expert in these matters.

Anyway, I think I have a good starting point based on the German rules of adding 10% to the bullet weight, as mentioned by Judson, and I will probably proceed with it. Unfortunately, it is not very simple to send a gun to be proofed overseas from here, despite the cash investment. I aggree that it would be way better to have a proof house checking the gun instead of doing it myself.

One thing I did not mention in my previous message is that I am very carefull at reloading. My loads are usually 5 to 10% less than the maximun loads listed for a given calibre, and I don't care if I am sacrificing a little bit of velocity to have a better safety margin. I always deal with these things very carefully.

I am also preparing a "quality control plan", a check list with everything I will control and measure before and after the tests. Visual inspection of the action and barrels are included, as well as measurements of the chambers, barrels and gaps. This will give me all the data to approve or reject the gun after the tests.

Fred