to seat in the case and all bullets fit the bore grooves tight but not overly so. I pan lubed the two larger bullets with LBT Commercial Blue--a bullet lube with the consistency of candle wax thereby avoiding the sticky and greasy mess of softer lubes and rolled the balls in Lee alox to lube the 'equator'.

At this time I asked a local gunsmith to make a chamber cast. My rifle has cham­bers 3 1/4" long with a 3/4" throat before meeting the rifling. The brass cases hold nearly 15 drams of black powder if filled to the top. The rim of the case is .100" thick and 1.00" in diameter. Shooting this rifle was going to be fun and both a his­torical and learning experience-everything shooting should be. But...where to begin?

In the long days of the Alaska summers in 2000 and 2001 I shot my big rifle for en­joyment at targets. During the summer of 2002 I sustained a ruptured Achilles ten-don on the last day of a hunting trip in South Africa. Since I would not be shoot­ing the big bore that summer I sent the Locke off to Griffin and Howe in New Jer­sey (908-766-2287) for an examination and recommendation as to refinishing. Paul Chapman, vice president, suggested leaving the receiver as it was as just enough case colors remained to give the rifle character. The stock was to be de-oiled and hand-rubbed with an English oil finish and the ancient recoil pad replaced. The barrels were to be blued and an old 10-bore oak and leather case was on hand if I cared to have my rifle fitted to it. Of course I did!

By spring of 2003 the rifle was returned to me and it looked magnificent. I would not have expected less from the finest cus­tom gun and rifle shop in the States. The case was not quite the size required so Mike Messina (516-794-1979) set the barrels on their side and had to cut a re­cess in the lid and bottom of the case. He also had to recess the areas in contact with the hammer screws. Now it was time for some serious shooting over a chrono­graph to see what this 7 bore could man-age. Since black powder was the original propellant that is where the shooting was to begin but smokeless propellants were the long term goal due to a personal dis­like of the immediate cleaning of both rifle and brass that is necessitated by the cor­rosive qualities of black powder.

Reloading components were gathered on my bench: Fg GOEX, 1 1/4x12 dies, Win­chester 209 shotgun primers, 1/8" over powder card wads, 1/2" felt filler wads, 1000-, 1350-, and 1620-grain projectiles, and some handy homemade cartridge holders. (Plastic .375 magnum 20-round cartridge boxes are drilled with a 1" bit transforming four cartridge chambers into one large chamber thereby equating to a 5-round box).

The velocity figures below were the aver-age of six shots. Since the rifle came with 18 cases, it was convenient to shoot three groups of six shots at the range before returning home to reload again. The velocities I obtained were less than expected due to the quality of today's black powder. In the days when black powder was the only propellant available the manufactures competed with each other to make the best stuff they could. Today, it seems technology has reversed itself. Grain for grain, modern powder falls a bit short.

I began with 8 drams (220 grains at 27.5 grains to the dram) and increased by one dram increments to a maximum of 14.

Also, FFg burned much cleaner than sin­gle F.

I did not, however, risk using FFg on the heavier projectiles. There is a lot of steel in the barrels and they are solid rolled steel, but I am not experienced enough to venture into realms unknown. I did shoot 8 drams of FFFg and the 1000-grain ball and the velocity averaged 1461 fps. Again, I did not use increased charges due to fears of excessive pressure.

Accuracy of the above ballistic tables was acceptable at the 50-yard targets I shot at through the chronograph. It seems the larger the bore on double rifles the for forgiving the regulation. (Heavy loads should not be shot off the bench!)

The above tests were the last time this cannon burned charcoal. The conven­ience of smokeless powder, the ease of cleaning, the economy of shooting less grains, and being able to fly to a hunting destination (it is not possible to fly with black powder ammunition in domestic or international flights) were justification for me to make the permanent switch to smokeless powder.

Blue Dot was the powder of choice as it came highly recommended by several friends who are experienced with the bore rifles. I'm sure other powders will work but since Blue Dot performed so well I felt there was no reason to expand my experimentation.

Components used were 1/8" over powder wads (70-80 pounds of pressure) and 1/ 2" felt spacer or filler wads (lots of 'em). Primers were Winchester 209. Beginning with the 1000-grain round ball the ballis­tics were:

NOTES: It is a joy to avoid cleaning black powder residue! Recoil was mild and even tolerable with the heaviest loads. Accuracy remained the same as with black powder.

The 1350-grain paradox bullet was next. Velocities were:

60 grains	1025	3150	173
65 grains	1068	3420	180
70 grains	1143	3910	193
75 grains	1191	4253	201
80 grains	1256	4730	212

NOTES: Recoil was getting heavier but still within my limits. Accuracy remained good--about 4 inches at 50 yards.

The big 1620-grain bullet was last. Ve­locities were:

60 grains	980	3456	198
65 grains	1025	3780	208
70 grains	1090	4275	221
75 grains	1160	4841	235

NOTES: With the low velocity, soft lead bullets would be needed for hunting. Ac-curacy remained good and recoil was much easier to digest than with maximum black powder loads. However, velocity ws approximately 300fps slower than with heavy black powder loads.