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First, I think 2" at 50yds is fair, but not good, depending to a degree on the width between centers of the bores. This first to establish a base line for discussion.

I have no love for handloading, but I realize that to 1.) get the best out of my rifle it is needed, 2.) to get the versatility of using reduced loads, or lighter weight bullets for practice or hunting here it is needed, 3.) to save more than a little money it is needed. Moreover, you have glossed over the several decades during which there were no ammo sources for any NE rifle. Federal's introduction of 470 ammo was also a lonely first for more than a decade. During this whole period, handloading was the ONLY reliable source of ammuntion for double rifles and for some of the other now popular British cartridges. Think here the 404 and the 416 Rigby.

On another issue I intended to include in my previous post is that while NE rifles weren't often reloaded for, "every" single BP and muzzle loading rifle was, and came with the tools to do it, along with the load. I'd bet my bottom dollar that more than a few more interested and enthusiastic owners messaged that load to improve accuracy.

Results from composite groups from a single barrel rifle are irrelevant to both groups and POI for a double rifle, the more so the larger the bore, the more so the velocity spread between ammo. Where you have vertical spread as a velocity infuenced variable in a single barrel, you have both velocity influenced vertical and horizontal spread in a double. Moreover, the velocity influenced horizontal spread caused by different barrel time for different loads in an off center barrel is additive, once for each barrel. Compounding the issue is that, in my experience at least, horizontal spread, or convergence, ocurs at a faster rate than vertical spread, or convergence, when velocity changes. A 250fps velocity change is so significant in a double rifle, assuming similar bullet, that your probably looking at 6" or 8" of spread at 50yds. I don't have my results handy, but, iirc, I believe that I saw 6" of convergence with a 100fps velocity change last time I sought a load for a 500gr Woodleigh. I know I saw more than eight inches of convergence for 250fps of velocity change from one 500gr load to another, but the bullet was different, though bullet weight equal and the powder was different, as would be the case with your three different loads. No comparision to be had.

As an aside, reports of old Kynoch ammo failures abound, making the use of even the freshest of pre Kynamco ammo against dangerous game unwise in the extreme. The reported failures run the gammut from misfires to hangfires to significant velocity shortfalls to bullet falures. No one should risk their life or a PH's or tracker's or gamescout's life on ammo that has been proving unreliable due primarily to its age.

OK lets assume that you can find that $60/box ammo for which your rifle is regulated, then take a look at just Federal. Reported velocity of different lots, from the same rifle, runs different enough to be shooting out of regulation. WR, which in my post stands for Wolfgang Rommey (sp?), is reported to be worse. Kynamco is reported to be consistent, but it is expensive and rare as unobtanium at times here and I suspect elsewhere. If you've got two weeks before a trip and you need ammo, good chances your screwed. Not so if you handload, especially if you've already developed your loads when time wasn't so precious. Hornaday is new enough that I haven't read any reports one way or another, but I'll bet it is good ammo. Relatively inexpensive too, at a reported $75-$90/box. That is here, your milage may vary with Hornaday and availablity and cost there. Don't know about Norma's consistency, but would expect that it is fine. Expensive though.

So, two out of five have built in consistency and so accuracy problems, no matter how good original regulation is.

At least four more of the five have availabilty issues, but that will narrow to three when Hornaday becomes ubiquitous, which will be soon. But then how many rifles were regulated with Hornaday? Answer, the last year's worth or so of Heym and Searcy (upon request, as I understand.) Now lets move on to dicuss the 450NE 3 1/4" or No2, 500/450, 500/465 or the 476WR, or the 475, or the 475 No2, the 475 Jefferey, the 500, the 577... If 470 ammo can be scarce, try these other cartridges.

JJ Perodeau regulates rifles just as any other master regulates rifles. Partially solder and wire the barrels together and shoot. Using his extensive experience, make an edjucated guess on how much the barrels need to be moved and repeat, and repeat, and repeat... And for reregulation, more or less the same, but using heater rods to heat the solder so the barrels can be moved, and repeat... But since there is no jig or formula for it, and since each barrel will shoot differently, any regulator's best estimate is the limit of their ability to regulate barrels. JJ has told me that he can do 1 1/2" at 50yds, but beyond that, it is a matter of getting lucky. The normal product of the skill of the regulator, or the time and money for ammo a firm will allocate to a rifle's regulation seems to be 2". It isn't JJ Perodeau, it is the inexact art of double rifle regulation that is the limiting factor which only luck can overcome.

Yes, there are some varibles to work through when searching for loads that will shoot to regulation in a double rifle, or improve its shooting over its accuracy with it regulating load. Thankfully, the very long history of reloading for double rifles has winnowed those variables down quite a bit. And thanks to one man in particular who took the lead in searching for, compliling and testing what works and what does not. That man is Graeme Wright, and his book, for which we await the third edition, is called "Shooting the British Double Rifle". For the man simply looking to make his rifle shoot to regulation without knowing what ammo his rifle was regulated with, or looking to make it shot better, this book is akin to a cook book. It is not the end all for reloading for double rifles, but it provides more than sufficient information to develop loads that will shoot to the rifle's barrels potential, and beyond the regulator's potential.

As I metioned, depending on what ammo you have had your rifle regulated with, should you need to leave next week, you will be in trouble, and you may find no factory ammo from any maker. But given a full day, and Graeme Wright's book, I am confident that one can develop a load that will shoot well in his rifle, assuming the range and the press can be brought together. Two days if not. Three days for darn sure, for both solid and soft loads. I know this, since I have done it, more than once, and my rifle does not get help from Wright's book.

Regarding economics, you could not be further from the truth. With the possible excpetion of Hornaday, even the low volume shooter - and that is no way to become and stay familiar with one's rifle - will "pay" for his fixed cost within a safari's worth of practice and hunting ammo. This is ever more true when one is willing to find cheap practice loads that shoot to regulation, say for example cast bullet loads... At $200/box of Federals, near that for Norma, Kynamco and WR, it does not take long to pay for the tools.

Also, when one reloads, one can put that expensive double rifle to use much more often on game for which the full power regulation load just does not make sense. This applies most perfectly to .458" rifles, but to others as well. A 350gr Hornaday out of a 450NE is fine deer, hog and blackbear medicine, should one opt to use their double rifle. Other bores have their options, but none so wide as the .458".

As far as being able to hold no better than two inches at 50yds in the field, fine, but when your rifle shoots no better than 2" you are now looking at 4" at 50yds. 2" of variable in your hold plus two inches of variable in your rifle, and there are times when that is marginal at best.

I believe I shoot marginaly better with a "six o'clock hold", with the bullets' poi at the top of the bead at 50yds. But I don't care if the poi is under the bead. And while a bead may subtend 4 moa, that does not mean that your accuracy is limited to what the bead subtends, though it will be limited by what references beyond the bead the target animal gives you, and that isn't even an issue with a poi at the top of the bead.

Here is a photo of an animal taken which very well may not have been taken with rifle capable of shooting no better than 2" at 50yds and a shooter capable of no better than a 2" hold in the field.

Bramble, since we are way off thread topic, should you wish to reply to this post, might I suggest starting a new thread?

JPK