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Hello,

I wonder if somebody could help me.
I have found a very nice hammergun, chambered for the .450/400 2 3/8" black powder. It is a lovely gun, but I am afraid of buying it because of this:
The gun is regulated for a 230 gr bullet and 80 gr black.
Original ballistics tell me that this will result in a muzzle velocity of 1750 ft/s and an energy of 1563 ftlbs. Now,... our government have decided in their great wisdom that for larger species of hooved animals (In our country this means deer and wild boar) you need at least 2200 Joule (1623ftlbs) at 100 meters. (regardless of knock out power. These are the rules, but you are allowed to shoot the very same animal with an E100 of 2200Joules at a 1000 yards, no problem )
The original Nitro for black load that I found in Greame Wrights book (that somebody from this forum has kindly lend me to use for a while!!) for this caliber is a bit better, but at 1640 ftlbs at the muzzle still not enough. Now the original pressure is supposed to be 10 Tons for this cartridge, so I tried to develop some virtual loads with my Quickload program, using barnes bullets from 250 to 400 grs and Somchem S365 powder, staying well under the 22400 psi (10 tons). According to this program this will result in 2000 to 2600 ftlbs range.
This will give me ample room to try different bulletweights and speeds in order to regulate.
Has anyone gone down this road, or should I leave this rifle alone?

Regards,

Huub.

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CAUTION : First off the 10 long tons listed in Graeme's book is not PSI. It is a copper crusher measurement used to proof the rifle at a proof house, and doesn't measure chamber pressure, but reverse thrust! This is not dirrectly convertable to PSI, as they are two intirely different things!

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..........Mac >>>===(x)===>
DUGABOY1, and MacD37 founding member of DRSS www.doublerifleshooterssociety.com
"If I die today, I have had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"

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Paradox



Sometimes it is better to not try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

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I agree with Mickey, it is what it is and is best to enjoy it that way. It shouldn't be hard to find a BP double to meet your requirements there always seems to be a handful of 450's 500's etc. for sale.

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"Recoil is insignificant when there is a tiger on the head of your elephant" The Maharaja of Cooch Behar



Edited by gatsby (12/05/08 06:21 AM)

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I am not familer with your laws, but if you can demonstrate a theoretical load that meets the minimums, then how the heck are they going to police what you actually use in practice. As far as I know there are no factory loadings for this cartridge so you can tell them any old nonsense. Even if somebody took a round off you to check, well your powder scales must have been throwing a little lite that day, or the ambient temp was different, that alone could make 200 fps difference. And what test barrel would they find to fire it in anyway.

For instence we have a .243 and 1720 fbs minimum rule here for deer. Now if I use a handload that produces slightly less how will anybody check.

If I really liked the rifle I would buy it shoot it and ignore what is patently a silly law.

Regards

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Hi Bramble, you are absolutely right. I think that is what I will do.
It's a stupid rule anyway. Rifles like that have always worked, and now they suddenly lack power?? On the other hand, if you shoot with a 60 grs bullet at 250 yds, you are perfectly ok.

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A very wise man once told me "Some rules are made to be followed, others quietly ignored".

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key word there being "quietly"..

Ripp

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ALL MEN DIE, BUT FEW MEN TRULY LIVE..

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now now bramble

would that not be considered as civil disobidense, or something like that ??

best regards

peter

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Well Peter at least I'm am being civil about it. It appears from what I see on the streets 50% of the population just do the disobedence bit. The only people who even seem to make an attempt of obeying the law these days are gun owners.

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