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Back in 1986 I bought a Parker-Hale Whitworth rifle in .451 cal - that's a very similar rifle to the one imported by the south during the ACW, handed out to their best shots, and used on high-value targets like senior officers of the Union. General Reynolds was one such victim at Gettysburg, and General Sedgwick at Spottsylvania Courthouse in the Wilderness. Parker-Hale, using the then-latest techniques, replicated the unique hexagonal rifling with its fast twist of 1:22 - a ROT that required the use of a ca.500gr elongated bullet with a matching helical shape to fit the grooves precisely. I was in the habit of getting 1.5 MOA all day long with this rifle and 80gr of 2Fg - right out to 600 yards, at which point my eyeballs gave up on the basic sights fitted to it.
Mine back then was serial #888, and I shot it a lot until my LGS stopped selling black powder over the counter. They are only 15 miles away. The nearest source for the stuff I shoot was then Henry Krank - an almost 300 mile drive there and back to collect the stuff. Disheartened, I gave up on it, and sold it it an eager German gentleman at a good profit.
And now that my LGS is selling BP again, in huge amounts, it seems, I've been offered another Whitworth rifle - this time with a very VERY early serial number - and in near-new condition, too.
THIS is what it shoots - a 500gr swaged flat-base 30:1 alloy lead and tin bullet made from a Dave Corbin press by the Polisar Brothers of Albuquerque NM.
I think I'd be crazy to let this one go by at the price he's asking, even though I'm going to have to get rid of another rifle to be permitted to get this one...