I have a few hammer gun "elsies" that have a tapered bore. Before I got a longer extension to my Skeet's gage, I could only go in 12 1/2", now I can go in 18". But, even before when I used the old one I would read both ends of the barrels and it wasn't uncommon to have a .005-.007 taper leading to the choke.
I noticed in Darly's figures, that this Lafever was from around 1888, and that the bores were fairly large. I have a few Syracuse "elsies" that I will measure the bores on. I know from all the bores of the Fulton era, that I have never measured one over .733. I have measured some as low as .725 and they again were hammer guns.
With the barrels being tapered, I could see how a better pattern might be developed as it is being held together better and then more so as it reaches the choke. With todays plastic wad, I don't think much of the load is out of the cup until it hits the choke and kind of slows the wad down. I could be wrong.
I do know that my Longrange has a long forcing cone and a longer taper to choke. Whether this means something, I don't know.
