Picked up an old J&W Tolley (birmingham)SXS hammergun a few years back. It has been a real adventure from casting the chambers, slugging the barrel, finding dies and brass, and finally coming up with a suitable load to regulate in a set of barrels 130 years old!
What was purchased as a 577/500 express, ended up being a #2, and the only dies I could find were listed as express, and ended up being for the #2 as well! Who says two wrongs dont make a right?!
The load I eventually found shooting the best for me, was a duplex load (I only "thought" I knew about reloading until I got into this BPC stuff!) using 10 grains of 5744 under 120 grains of Swiss FFg. Top it off with a grease cookie and a paper-patched 360 gr cast bullet, and it all came together.
Last week I took a little drive ten hours north of me, past Slave Lake, into the Redearth Creek district of northern Alberta. The area was literally over-run with bears.
I crippled my confidence a bit on the first night out, when I missed a shot at the most beautiful blonde bear I have ever seen! I knew I had been busted, and I hurried a hail-mary through the bush. Lesson learned.
The next day, I was able to redeem myself, when I pulled off a 75 yd off-hand shot on a smaller 5 ft. bear in the morning. He only travelled a scant 25 yards into the bush and expired. A perfect broadside pass-through.
After the skinning chores were done in the afternoon, I went out again. Daylight in northern Alberta this time of year, extends from 4:30 am to almost 11:00 pm., so there is lots of hunting opportunity. My first bear was shot at 7:30 am, so even after a couple hours of skinning/trimming and salting, I still had many hours of daylight left.
Aproximately twelve hours after shooting my first bear, I found myself walking a fairly
bushed-in cutline. At a distance of about fourty yards, I saw what I thought was a little runt of a bear (just saw a hairy "back-line") moving in the bush. I went to spook him off, and then at ten yards, he stood up! Apparently he had been laying down munching on something, and once he stood, I realized that this was a reasonably good bear. I was sure I had spooked him off for sure when he proceeded into the bush, but he made the brazen mistake of stopping at twenty yards to check out the intruder on his backtrail.
Sometime around noon, it had started to cool off and there was a steady mist of much needed rain (the entire province had just recently announced a province-wide fire ban). When I touched off that heavy load of blackpowder, it instantly created a low-hanging cloud that obscured all vision. I am used to the cloud, but it normally disipates in seconds. This cloud made quite the impression, as under the circumstances, it refused to go away! For at least sixty seconds, each one feeling like minutes, the cloud hung there. Here I was with a bear thrashing around in the under-brush at twenty yards, and I couldn't see to shoot if I had to!
About the time that the cloud of smoke finally died down, so did the thrashing chaos of the bear. I cautiously moved in and found my "runt" was a respectable six footer.
The hunt was not the relaxed R&R trip I am accustomed to for a spring bear trip, but it sure was rewarding!

Nice pictures would be nice also.

I would love to forward a few pics to someone eager to post them for me