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First off, the idea that the potential damage with hard bullets in double rifles is only associated with "old" rifles is pure myth. New DRs built of "modern" steel have had the same problems. Exceptionally hard bullets that resist obturation shouldn't be used in any double.

The "problems" some ascribe to steel jacketed solids in doubles are largely internet invention. They have a lead core with no homogenous "H" section which makes them easily compressible in the bore. I've shot Woodleigh and Kynoch steel solids in doubles for years, and have not had, nor heard of, any problems with doing so. I don't feed them a steady diet of them, nor is there ever any need for anyone to do so anyway.

What is a "hard" bullet, and what is not? Most folks don't have a ready way to quantify that. I think I do, and my own experience with the Swift A Frame convinced me that I would never fire one in a double rifle.

One of my doubles, nominally a 9.3mm, was regulated with 300 grain bullets. Since Swift makes a .366" 300 grain A Frame, and 9.3 bullets in that weight are hard to come by, I decided to try them. This rifle has very tight bores - factory ammo was loaded with .367" bullets, but the bores slug .363" - so I size down off the rack 9.3 bullets in a Corbin reducing die before loading. Sizing down .003" is a snap. A jacketed lead core bullet requires somewhat more pressure on the press handle to go through the die than does full length resizing a bottleneck rifle case. Over the years, I can remember using Speer, Norma, RWS, Hawk, and Woodleigh, including Woodleigh's steel jacketed solid. None ever presented a problem, and the steel jacketed solids really do compress.

I've sized down the Woodleigh 286 grain steel jacketed solid, no problem. Were my press bolted to a thick steel table top, I might have been able to get the Swift to enter the die by jumping up and down on the press handle like an organ grinder monkey. As it is, my press is bolted to a wooden bench top made of 2X12s. When I gave up on the Swift, I had a length of steel pipe on the press handle for a cheater, the bench top was bowed and beginning to crack, and the bullet still hadn't begun to enter the die. I gave them away. A bullet that hard has no place in a double rifle, regardless of age.

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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

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