As I sit here, theres a copy of "Shooting the British Double Rifle" by Wright in front of me. He has a very good chapter about Paradox guns, which were basically shotguns with only the final couple of inches rifled. They were able to shoot shot as well as special conical bullets accurately out to 100 yards. Sound familiar??? The rifling was VERY slow about 1 in 36 inches. The slugs veried from slightly over sized to slightly under sized. They were almost ALWAYS very soft. I bought my mold from NEI while my barrels were being shortened and quessed what the bore size would be after 6 inches was cut off. If I remember correctly, I bought #402 and #403 in the same mold. My barrels "mic" out to .770 and the slugs about .790, with a hard mixture. My next step is to try a softer casting. Honestly Im not sure if the mold is too big, or if I need to try different lead mixtures that will shrink more as it cools. Casting is new to me, and Im relying on friends for the actual pouring right now, so Im using their "lead".
Syncerus, get a copy of Wright's book. Its the best Ive found on Paradox guns. Before you buy the mold Id also look into choke tubes. It might be worth having tubes made to your specs before you buy the mold. Also you might want to have a mold made to the original designs. Let me know.
Ranger J, the Paradox guns were used like a Express gun at shorter ranges. They were lighter then the heavy Express guns because the bullet didnt have to "fight" the rifling the entire length of the barrels. They were popular in India for Tigers ect and Africa for dangerous stuff as well.
