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hoppdoc:

JPK is giving you the same advice that I gave you in the other thread. He's right.

It has nothing to do with pressure. As long as the load is properly worked up, the pressures with monos need not be any more unsafe in a double than they are in a bolt rifle. The damage to doubles with them is due to their inability to compress during obturation. Rifle barrels expand slightly as the bullet traverses the bore. With a lead core bullet that compresses and obturates easily, this expansion is minimal. A monolithic bullet lacks a compressable core and barrel expansion is greater. Because the barrels of doubles don't have the wall thickness of a typical single barrel rifle (the weight and handling dynamics issues would otherwise be insuperable), this is a special problem with them. The solder joints of the ribs and sights can become overworked and fail. Worse, overstressed rifling can occur. That term is literal and the condition is characterized by the imprint of the lands on the OUTSIDE of the barrels. It isn't a joke. I've seen both types of damage. I once ruined the barrels of a nice double with Barnes X myself.

The banded solid design is supposed to cure this compressability problem by dramatically reducing the surface area that must be engraved by the rifling. The theory might work if the bands are deep enough to insure that the full diameter of the bullet shank does not touch the lands. Yeah, right. Oh, well, I don't want to start another war. Suffice to say that Barnes doesn't make a true banded design. They don't make anything that is suitable for a double. Period.

For those who feel the need to shoot 500 grain solids out of magazine rifles at ultra velocities, perhaps the need for monolithic bullets is real. At the velocities that the big flanged double rifle rounds operate at, it doesn't make sense. Those rounds made their legends long before WWII. Prior to WWII, "solids" were ordinary full nickel-jacketed round nose bullets. Gilding metal covered steel jacketed solids were not offered in those calibers until after the war. They worked fine. What few failures there were with them were eliminated with the post-war steel jacket. In other words, the .470 made it's legend with ordinary full metal jacket solids. The steel jacketed Kynochs that followed were better, and todays Woodleighs are tougher than the old steel Kynochs ever were. Some would have you think that you're taking your life in you hands if you don't use monos. That's rat lotion.

If you've drunk the peddler's poison and must have monos, use a true banded design. Better yet, use Woodleighs - they were designed for double rifles.
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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

Edited by 400NitroExpress (26/03/06 05:00 AM)