Hey guys,

Interesting about the over-bore balls. I know of one guy shooting the over-bore .735s, but as was noted, he gets a few pressure spikes due to the swaging, and thusly can't load them too hot. I also didn't know about the leading of the bore either. I didn't figure this mattered in a smoothbore though?

For what it's worth, I will be chasing grizzly bears with these loads, so definitely want something that hits HARD and penetrates deep. That being said, I only need them for distances within 20 yards, so that was my reasoning behind my copper jacketed slugs: heavy, hard, and hit with a heck of a lot of energy. But after hearing/reading about the straight line penetration of the round ball loads, that has me thinking that maybe those might be a better choice. So to sum it up: I need a "stopper" gun, and I like the quick follow up shot that a double provides, compared to my 375 bolt gun.

Incidently, does anyone know what diameter the round balls that were being shot out of the old timer's howdah guns/bore guns and such were? Were they under-bore, or bore diameter?