500 grains, forgive me, but you are far off base. Please state your experience. For pure data, read Sherman Bell's article in DGJ, Winter 2003. It will be your wake up call. Sherman tests a mutual friends 8 bore and sites his experience in Africa. This gentleman has killed over 30 elephants with a wide variety of weapons. The 8 bore has no equal. Forensic exams were done on several elephants shot with the 8. Frontal brain shots penetrated up to 31 inches. The shortest of three was stopped at 16" because it hit a tooth. Sherman sites Taylors knock out value, a guide universally agreed to be the standard. In it he compares a .470 nitro to an 8 bore rifle.The KO value for the 470 is 72, the 8 bore 190!! Sherman goes on to explain kinetic energy and why these guns were the real stoppers.

The reason the bore rifles were replaced was because of the weight difference and ease of carrying, period. A .577 was 5 lbs lighter, with no smoke screen, but no way can you compare the stopping power.

Paradox guns were built lighter as there was no rifling, hence less recoil. I own a Nitro H&H 10 bore, 13.5 pounds, built in 1908. Why would they make this gun while the nitro .577 was available for 7 years! Gatsby had it right, a steel core bullet, weighing 920 grains is a stopper, period.

The most underated of all is the 12 bore Paradox. Yes you can shoot a buffalo and it will go right through him as has been experienced by several people in the last few years. Take this same gun and shoot quail!

As Marraki stated, these guns are the least understood.