At the most recent Rock Island Auction I was the high bidder on a 450 3.25" double rifle by Edward Lang. I was interested in the rifle for a number of reasons -- first, I really like the Webley Bain screw grip action and have ones in 360BPE (Watson), 500BPE (Army & Navy CSL) as well as a 20ga shotgun converted from a rifle. I like the action.
Secondly, this rifle had been scoped in the past. The mounts are typical German claw mounts and the scope is a 4X. I wanted a scope on a DR for deer hunting here in the USA (either northern MN or western MD).
Lastly, while I have 8 DRs, none had the original mould and I thought that was very cool.
Anyway, I had it to the range today for the first time. The bore at the muzzles is noticeably tighter than my Dickson 450, and I wanted to try what I've been reading about NfB loads in Graeme Wright's 4th edition, so I loaded up 4 rounds using .452 jacketed HPs by Hornady (300gr XTPs) and 44gr of IMR4198. Loading couldn't have been simpler...already had resized and primed cases and just measured and poured in the powder, topped with ~3gr of kapok fiber to fill the airspace, and hand pressed in the bullet.
I couldn't have been happier with the results. Accuracy at 50yrds was 1.5" and the velocity was fairly consistent. I also tried some 300gr LFP bullets with the same charge and filler and those didn't work as well. Finally I had some left over patched 300gr LFP bullets loaded with 110gr 2Fg and a grease cookie...those did better than the NfB 300gr lead projectiles, but no where near as well as the jacketed bullets.
I think I may be spending more time in the NfB territory as they were so stupid easy to load. And while I don't mind cleaning up after black, it would have been nice to just put the rifle in the vault and be done.
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Edward Lang 450BPE on a Webley Screw Grip Action
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