I think we are on the same page , I was just musing about the barrel scoring thing, Doug, which is why I checked the hulls.
I know that steel wad petals are a lot thicker ans the base wads are pretty much solid instead of having cushioned cages.
And yes you are very correct on the forcing cone thing, we found modern forcing cones are much different and my buddy and I have reamers to relieve the older forcing cones when we open up chokes as well.
I know Guntech has continually mentioned about the forcing cones when omeone posts in about shooting steel threw older guns

Cat