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The 200 grain Barnes works wonders for me. I've shot them with a variety of propellants including 777 and vv N110.

Regarding steel type, I'm a big fan of DC53. It is a little like M series tool steels in that it has a so called "secondary hardening response". What that means is that the hardness after tempering can actually be a few points higher than as-quenched. Additionally, much of the alloy content...

I have shot a TC encore with patched round ball and 40 grains of black. Works fine. Regards, Duhawki

I have a 870 pump 20 ga. with a Hastings rifled barrel. I can hit with that and have done so.

I own a MkIII and am happy with it despite having initially found difficulty reassembling following cleaning. Between the installation of a HSS and having learned how not to do things, life is good these days. Also, I have installed Volquartsen trigger, hammer and sear; so, the trigger breaks...

I appreciate the info. Does anyone know what really happened to SMI? Or how to contact the dude that ran it? Regards, Duhawki

I have a 50 cal SMI barrel on a H&R Ultrarifle frame. It was built for me about a decade and a half ago. I noticed the SMI website is gone and the old phone number in Upland is disconnected too. I'm guessing out of business? I also have concerns about my breech plug and erosion of the 0.030...

None of the stores here in W. Central Ohio have it yet. I haven't seen any data / road tests either. My T/C Encore digests 777 OK; so, I'm interested in how this new stuff works compared to 777. Probably we all are.

I've heard some horror stories about Lil' Gun, but I've never heard a convincing explaination of why. My guess is that it might be a bit too fast. There are slower shotgun powders. I'm going from memory, but I believe Blue Dot is. I have some of that. Anybody ever try Trail Boss...

In comparison to high powered rifles, smokeless muzzleloaders are bound to be relatively low pressure. Dan at SMI mentioned 30 ksi max. I think they have a pressure barrel. Given that, I would think we ought to be looking at some shotgun powders, like Lil' Gun, more carefully. And what about...

I have looked for exactly the same thing in 200 grains (like the old Knight Red Hots) a few years ago. I got lucky when Barnes finally came out with the 200 grain 45 cal 460 S&W bullet. They have another one in 275 grain for that cartridge; would that work for you? At one time SMI was able to...

Weekend before last, I drove over to Indiana to pick up an extra breechplug for my SMI / H&R barrel. I would up buying two so that I could have a matched pair. The current ones feature an "expansion chamber underneath the primer. The ~.030 vent is thus toward the muzzle end of the plug. It...

My SMI 50 cal has made two trips to the range so far. between those trips, I did not remove the breech plug. Before the first trip it was tightened to a modest torque; I would estimate 30 ft-lbs. On the second range trip there was noticeable leakage / escaping gas around the plug. The barrel...

When the accuracy started to go south, at first I thought the scope had died or come loose. Later on at home I cleaned the bore with Birchwood Casey / acetone and Hoppe's Elite. One after the other. An amazing amount of crud came out of the barrel. I wrapped big square patches around a brush...

I've ordered some more 12s and some short ones from MMP. I wouldn't worry about the length except that the end of the bullet is so close to the sabot petals that most loading jags cannot be used. If the short ones don't work, I'll trim the long ones. I also ordered some Harvesters from Midway...

OK guys, you've helped straighten me out about powders. Now, lets see what you can do with sabots. In my total of two trips to the range, I have only used MMP HPH-12s with my 50 cal SMI barrel and 200 grain Barnes XPBs. Other than being a bit too long, I saw nothing to complain about, but I...

Yesterday afternoon I did make it back to the range to experiment with powders / bullets in the 50 cal SMI. I started by loading 43 grains of VV N-110 behind the 200 grain XPBs. I used only CCI 209M primers. Although I did not chronograph anything, I'm sure 43 grains N-110 is a hotter load...

.031 inch is a standard size for nipple picks. That size wire will not go through my SMI vent, but .029 will. When I picked up my barrel from Ron and Dan, they told me that I could use loads from their website and that Savage loads would be OK too. Now I wonder if SMI has intentionally...

I very much like VV N-120 in my 444, and believe it should work fine in the SMI barrel, especially with heavy bullets. Years ago when I got a T/C Encore 50 cal ML, I did try heavy bullets including 300 grain. With full house 150 grain (non-smokeless) loads, the recoil was pretty stout. That...

Yesterday, I finally got to the range with my H&R / 50 cal SMI. I have to say that I received a great variety of conflicting advice from numerous sources about loads for this barrel. So, in the end I punted and stuck with one of the SMI published loads: 65 grains of H4198 with a Fed 209A...