I love it when that happens. I haven't shot either of my Pope's, I guess I should but I've got plenty of others to shoot. Probably the best shooting falling block I have is a high wall in 33-47 that Al Seigrest rebored for me.
Phil
Pope advertised that he guaranteed his barrels to shoot into 3" at 200 yards, when using fixed ammunition, 2 1/2" when breech seated (bullet inserted straight into the rifling ahead of a charged case), and 2" if muzzle-breech loaded (bullet pushed down the barrel from the muzzle and charged case inserted last). Again remember this was with plain base cast bullets and black powder. He was modest in some respects and headstrong in others, but in this instance I think he was being modest or at least hedging his bets as it was quite common -almost universal - that his barrels performed quite a bit better than his guarantee. The trick was in figuring out the load and shooting technique that worked. He would provide a mould that made a bullet that perfectly matched the bore of the barrel he sold you, and if the mould became separated from the rifle you had your work cut out for you - and dammit if 95% of Pope rifles that have survived no longer have their dedicated Pope moulds with them anymore. Kind of like selling a wildcat rifle today that shoots a truly unique one-off cartridge, and keeping the dies for it and selling them on eBay for a couple bucks. Why do people do that kind of nonsense?
I obviously don't have the original mould for my Pope 32-40. I had to go through four custom jobs from Accurate Molds before I hit upon the right combination of shape, weight/length, diameter, taper, and then I had to futz with different lead alloys and powder charges before I struck it rich.
