Gentlemen:
A late post, apologies (busy week!), however for those who have not seen these pics before:
My 12-bore Fosbery mold (when new) from Jim Allison at Cast Bullet Engineering (CBE) in Australia:
A Fosbery projectile as cast from the CBE mold:
The catalogue of molds available from CBE is here:
http://users.bigpond.com/ammodump/cbe.html Jim can be contacted at this address: jim.cbe@bigpond.com
It appears that many contemporary users of Paradox-type guns are confused about the correct projectile size for accurate shooting. As published in the Double Gun Journal last year, Ross Seyfried finally "discovered" the "secrets" of accurately shooting his Paradox, ie that the projectile should be only a thou or so under the smooth-bore diameter (never-mind that Graeme Wright published this fact in his book several years before!).
The Fosbery projectile is relatively soft when cast from 95:5 lead/tin alloy, and has (relatively) narrow driving bands: it was designed to swage down considerably in the choke's forcing-cone before being engraved by the rifling. Tim knows this too, though I fully respect his choice to shoot projectiles sized to the rifled-choke rather than the bore: as he says, once a ring-bulge appears behind the chokes, it is all over. Sacrificing a little potential accuracy to ensure the longevity of a valuable old rifle needs no excuse.
However...! The fact that H&H are willing to recommend their new cartridges (bullet dia .740?) be fired in max's nitro Paradox supports my contention that the practice is just as valid today as it was a century ago. If the bullet is cast 95:5 and has the Fosbery design, it should be safe to shoot at bore diameter.
The Dixie slugs are a coat of a different color, having harder alloy and smaller diameter than a traditional Fosbery. They are no doubt a marvellous modernization of the concept, but should probably be restricted to modern barrels IMHO.
Hope this helps.
