g1smd - 7:36 pm on Apr 30, 2012 (gmt 0)

Use Live HTTP Headers to check that a 301 redirect occurs, or something else happens.

In place of ^GET\s.+\.(php|shtml) I would use ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /[^.]+\.(php|shtml)\ HTTP/

You don't need the RewriteBase line at all, certainly not in the middle of the file.

You need the [L] flag on every rule.

Whatever you mean by "normal redirects" they should all use RewriteRule syntax and appear at the top of the file.