I don't see where that's relevant to the subject at hand. His tests were not designed to determine the strength of anything, but to show how and where various bore obstructions would cause burst barrels.
I never read anything he wrote that recommended exceeding manufacturer load level recommendations. He also used all types of MLs as well as cartridge guns. One of his favorite activities seemed to be dressing up in full frontier regalia and camping out while hunting and plinking around. The only "agenda" Dr. Sam pushed was getting out and shooting a bunch of stuff and having a good time doing it.
I have to disagree. I read his early books too. He recommended 1 gr of powder for every gr of bullet wt. So, a .50 cal PRB was 170gr. He said to use 170gr of powder. A .54 220 gr of powder. He backed off a bit on larger calibers, but the loads were still huge.
Sounds like dangerous loads to me. He might have changed his thinking in later years, but that was what he was saying in his early books.
