Connecticut Yank - if you need any thoughts on home-loading, happy to help. A good book to give you a decent grounding would be the Douglas McDougall "Eight Bore reloading" book but it is not that easy to find and some of the loads cane be a tad on the heavy side! I use brass cases for my 8ga Paton, made for the barrels by a splendid gent in Scotland. They fit only the chambers of my gun but are a delight to use and should last for years with care. I am shortly to re-load mine with blackpowder, with 2 1/4 ozs of No 2 Nice Shot.
More photos of the Big 8 if you can would be really interesting. As a matter of interest, what are the lengths of the barrels and what is the weight of the gun as that could instantly give an indication as to chamber size (a very weighty gun of 15-17lbs is more likely to be a 4 1/4 chambered "magnum" 8 bore).
Craig
