[glockster157]

Guns and Ammo did a story on trying to blow up a black powder rifle back in the either the late 70's or early 80's. It was a typical sidelock hawken style if memory serves. They took it out of the stock and put it in a rifle vise. I tried up to 600 grains of BP and 2 or 3 500 grain slugs and never even bulge the barrel. Finally they left some bullets about halfway down the barrel and blew it to smithereens. Doesn't really apply to the smokeless question but I would love to see a test done in the same manner under controlled conditions to see what would happen.