16ga.com ~ View topic

Those of us who enjoy messing with old guns and/or reloading might check out these pics, just to remind ourselves of what can happen:

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=13311&page=1#Post13311

The point has been made several times that, when buying a 60-100 year old gun, it can be difficult to know what others have done to or shot through the gun in the past. It's worth our fingers, eyes, and other body parts having a doublegun specialist check out any old gun before enjoying it!

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: Michigan

Still haven't seen any blown Damascus Parkers posted.
Proud to be a Putz. Wink

Sounds like a great T-shirt Dave for the next PGCA shoot:

"Proud to be a Parker Putz" Very Happy

Member Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 781

Rev,

And we'll have an "Elsie Brand", Gap and Crack Filler" T shirt made up for you.

I'm sure the picture of you two together in those shirts would get into Shooting Sportsmans coverage of the shoot.

(my son and I were in one of the articles as father/son shooters for Parker)

How about 'Sweet Elsie Love Slave' Question

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

Well the barrels are fluid now Embarassed

Good words from a poster on DoubleGunBBS:

"If you are going to spend money to buy and shoot old guns you need to invest in tools to evaluate them and keep them in top shape. Bore micrometers, barrel wall thickness gauges, decent bore lights, powder scales if you reload are all must own items. Learn how to use all of these tools. If you can not, then have your guns evaluated by a gunsmith that has these tools and knows how to use them. Clearly marked proofs are nothing if the gun has been worked on and the barrels screwed up. If you are not willing to do that then buy the guns for antiques and hang them on the wall.

When a set of barrels gets thin give up on them. Yes .025 may be safe to shoot, but not with 2 3/4" factory loads. And not when my hand is on that forend and you are shooting hot loads."

Member Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Posts: 989 Location: Las Vegas

There was a lot of discussion on that thread about barrel wall thickness. Does anyone know what is "acceptable barrel wall thickness"?

Matt

Matt: there was also a recent thread on doublegunBBS about minimal brl wall thickness. The wall thickness is measured 9" from the breach and the muzzle and should be more than .020 (though some black powder posters wanted .025) The thickness immediately past the chambers should be .080.
From the pics of that blown up gun, however, ANY old gun may have had the brls honed at some point and the entire brl should be measured. Other problems include honing out a dent without first raising the dent.

Member Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Posts: 989 Location: Las Vegas

Thanks Drew!

Matt

Member Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 743

From "Modern Sporting Guns", by Christopher Austyn (formerly head of the Sporting Gun Department at Christie's, the big British auction house):

"There is no legal minimum thickness for a shotgun barrel, although the British Gun Trade Association recommend 20 thousandths of an inch as a general minimum." Remember that this refers to British guns, shooting British shells--which are somewhat lower pressure than our American factory loads. Generally speaking, the quote Drew posted above--minimum of .025--is a better guide if you're going to be shooting American factory ammo. And thicker than that is better.

Wall thickness gauges are tricky critters to use properly. What you'll observe, if you watch someone who knows how to use one, is that barrel wall thickness can vary at a certain length from the chamber, if the gauge is run around the entire interior circumference of the bore. Sometimes it can vary by quite a bit! So it takes a pretty careful examination to find the true "thin" spot.

From discussions over on doublegunshop over a pretty long period of time, I'd say that the conclusion is that MOST barrel bursts, assuming a barrel in decent condition to start with, are the result of some type of obstruction in the bore. A detached base wad is the culprit fairly often.