General? My book says he was Lieutenant James Forsyth,M.A. - as of 1863. What happened after that, I do not know.

Your results will be interesting indeed.

In the days Forsyth's book was written, the fast twist guns with standard rifling did poorly, stripping, etc. Grooving as your rifle was done to prevent stripping.

Forsyth's concerns even with the belted ball in fast twist barrels, was they they were not accurate with the large charges normally used for tiger, buffalo and elephant.

He stated that their owners merely used the heavy charges anyways and put up with less accuracy, they still shot as well as smoothbores, which worked in close just fine.

I've shot several smooth bored 20 to 11 bore guns that will hold right about the 3" to 4" for 5 shots at 50 yards with tightly patched balls.

To prove Forsyth wrong about his twist criticisms & their unsuitability for large dangerous game, you would have to use the same loads as he did - 5 to 8 drams or at least 4 1/2 to 6 drams - as in 123gr. to 164gr., as well as using a powder like Swiss 1 1/2F or 2F.

I am fearful your old stock might not like that very much, but, the results would be MOST interesting.