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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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