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The Enfield Martini .402 was one of the very best black powder single shots military rifles ever. It is a fascinating 'whatif' had smokeless powder not been introduced. The modern history of solid fuel rocketry gives us some idea of the routes that designers were already going down to control pressure and duration of burn when smokeless powder made it all irrelevant.

All sorts of weird ideas were being explored to control black powder fouling in ever smaller bores. Water injection, bullets ejecting lubricant out of holes and gelatine wads were just some of the saner ones. Better control of the burning and better attention to detail in black powder making were more plausible.

How might ammunition have progressed since the 1880's if smokeless powder failed to work in guns?
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