Pete D.
when you say quite a few MLers using smokeless, are you referring to firearms like the Savage that is designed to shoot smokeless or people who have decided to do it?
Yes - to both... several ML on the market today use the same steel that would be used in a modern day centerfire rifle... the weak point is not the barrel (if you choose the right rifle) it is the breech plug...
Why, why, oh why would anyone want to do something like that? I'm not inclined (no disrespect intended to your comment) to view as forward thinking anyone who would take a modern, well made efficient firearm and turn it into something less than it was. I have trouble believing that such a conversion would be more efficient than an equivalent cartridge. Let's say that they use a .45 caliber barrel on a Ruger #1 action. Are they going to come up with something as powerful and easily reloadable as the .45-70 in that gun? I don't think so.
Yep, that is exactly what is happening, because the Ruger #1 is not legal for ML hunting or for short range weapons such as shotgun or ML...
I wonder about that. Smokeless is not nearly as forgiving as BP. Y'now...with BP if you are a few grains extra down the tube, it ain't no big deal. With smokeless....? Where do these folk get their load data? How do they know what is safe? (not saying that it couldn't be - but how do they know). And that question again.....why? Why take a gun and make it harder to use? It ain't as easy to load from the muzzle as it is to slip one into the breech.
It is the same old thing invent something and man will always try to move one step forward with it. It is just human nature.
We have debated the need for more and more velocity ofr years and yet we keep trying to reach centerfire velocities - why because it is humane nature to move forward... why do you think Tony Knight made an inline....
Do not know if this answers anything for you and I have not read the other answers that have been posted yet....