The tungsten matrix party is just about over. Market metal prices and transportation costs are working against it being a viable alternative for shooting steel. Ditto bismuth. The industrial users of both of these metals can and will pay much more for them than shooters will.
The truth is, there are FEW altenatives to steel and the market has just about taken those away.
Larry, some folks MIGHT be willing to let a London built pigeon gun travel in the duck boat. But, I don't know any of them. What you are describing is a fairly rare and very expensive gun, in any event. Those tungsten loads are way, way up there on pressure as well. Just because an old, expensive, London fowler was proofed at that level, 75 years past, are we to be comfortable subjecting it, on a regular basis, to that level of pressure today?
Ignorant, here and now, is not understanding, just how limited old doubles, of any type, are going to be in the very near future. Steel loads, and the pressures generated in "useful" hunting ammunition of same, will conspire to rob us of the use of most of those old guns.
Mr. Taylor, I congatulate you on your grasp of the conditions we all face, that at least a few are beginning to understand.
Best,
Ted
