The Single-Barrel, Break-Open Shotgun

[CharlesHarris]

As long as the as- cast slug is of small enough diameter to fall through the choke a dout the muzzle, when dropped into the opened breech, a somewhat harder alloy does no harm.A curacy may be affected somewhat if the slug is a very loose fit, but if a harder slug is too large to pass through the choked portion, it doesnot squeeze down as readily as a soft one of pure lead, and you may burst the barrel.

Years ago I did this by firing. 44-40 cartridges in a .410/12mm shotgun. Soft lead bullet factory loads shot pretty well, but one day a jacketed softpoint cartridge found its way into my coat pocket and the muzzle of the gun split open and spread like the hood of a cobra! cut off the barrel behind the split, and now have a handy 18" cylinder bore "snake gun" which throws skeet patterns. The bore slugs an even .424" for its entire bore length beyond the forcing cone and round balls will stay on a bucket at 25 metres and penetrate 5cm of soft pine.