doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Double Rifles, Paradox Guns & Gauge Rifles @ doublegunshop.com William Evans 20b Paradox

For what it's worth to this thread, Cal said that his new book will have quite a few pictures of these paradox guns but they have been already covered in detail by another book.

I can't find any record of a 20 paradox cartridge using a case longer than 2 1/2".
The Holland loadings were 18 and 20 grains cordite and 1 gun regulated with 25 grains.
Certainly there were 20 bore shotshells at 2 3/4 and 3".
There were only 27 Holland 20 bore pdxes, probably less than 100 Faunetas and the other makers? Not many.
Be nice to get your bore dimensions.

Proofs on a couple of Faunetas showing the 2 1/2" (no LC)

I will get bore and choke dimensions ASAP.
Here are the flats ans the 2 3/4" SHELL stamp

Huvius,
To shoot at only one target at a useable range takes too long to locate the point of impact, you need to shoot the second shot as quickly as you can get back on target. The purpose here is to see how the rifle shoots with the load in question. When in the field,you may very well take longer between shots and not let the barrels cool.You are doing two different things.I usually shoot at around a hundred yards,sometimes eighty.Unless you are checking shot patterns, 25 yards doesn't seem like a good distance to use.Again, you are checking regulation,you may very well have a 25 yard shot while hunting; but first you have to find the right load.
On the other hand, this is your rifle,not mine. You are perfectly entitled to do what ever you want with it.As long as the shells hold out,have at it.I won't get into bench technique.
Mike

Maybe I should shoot the remaining rounds at 50yds with a wide background and see where it is.
Is there any concern that shooting the high velocity rounds could be detrimental to the gun? I wouldn't want to stress it more than necessary.

This may have been gone over by the previous owner and TA but....
The bore choke relationship in the WR Fauneta is typical of most rifled choke guns. However the Faunetas I have seen have a 3 groove rifling system but WR rarely use the 3 groove system on their 12's. Why is this? Holland regulated 1 20 paradox with a heavy 25gr cordite load but reported difficulty in getting it to regulate beyond 50yds. Holland uses a 7 groove system. I have bore measurements from several Faunetas which are all similar but none from any Holland. Are they the same? Just some thoughts.

I would love to know what loads you settle on as my 20 bore 2.5" Simson ball and shot exhibits the exact same characteristics with the faster "Armburst" loads.

Dave,
Do you have bore and choke measurements for your Simpson?

Yes...Both barrels very similar in dimension.
*Note: Standard type rifling not H&H ratchet type.

Bore ~.634" choke ~.606".
Differential @ ~.028".
+/- my nominal ability to measure the choke and groves 100% accurately...;-) I know the bore is dead nuts as I do have 2 good bore gauges.

I had two loads to try both had bullets sized to .628. Both loads were designed to be around 10,000 PSI. Load #1 was tagged at 1569fps and load #2 was tagged at 1350fps. Both loads crossed at 50 meters (It's German so I went metric for sighting distance.)
*Note: Each barrel shot very consistently by itself a 2" spread for multiple shots from the single barrel at 50 meters.

Each load produced a composite group with a 6.75" spread and the shots did cross as in left barrel printed 6.75" to the right of where the right barrel hit on target.