doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What do you think could have caused this?

Gentlemen: The law of defamation (libel if in writing, slander if verbal)has two important exceptions to liability--truth is always an absolute defense, and merely stating your opinion as opposed to making a false statement of fact is protected. That said, you could spend a lot of money raising these defenses in a lawsuit against you, even if ultimately successful. Bottom line is most gunsmiths do not have the time or money to prosecute a libel/slander lawsuit unless the statement is so outrageously false that it is a slam dunk winner, and they can prove a loss in their business income caused by the statement.

Despite the foregoing, when I have had problems with gunsmiths, I have either referred to them by name in private messages only,when asked, if I thought it was important to help another owner make an informed decision, or not raised the issue at all if the problem was a small one or if the error was not one that clearly was within his control. No point in being rude or ungentlemanly over a difference of opinion, but no point in hiding the truth of poor quality work if another owner needs some valid info. FWIW

Guy's,
I didn't mean to hi-jack this thread by relating my own sob story. I've thought long and hard about my situation and decided it not worth persueing. I had several friends encourage me to take this smith to small claims court over this mess. When I thought the whole thing through it just wasn't worth it to me. This would have involved at least a couple of seven hour drives to South West Colorado from Denver were I live, just to possibly win a judgement for a couple of grand. Then I would have to collect and probably never see a dime.

The other fact is this man would be considered an expert in the subject of double gun repair and my testimony would be that of an a simple gun owner. Who's the judge going to believe?

Sometimes you just have to take your lump's and move-on!

Back to the original question.

If I understand the description of the damage correctly, it may have been done from a pilot that rotated in the bore.

dogon

Sorry for your loss. I agree with your decision. If it were me I would be on the look out for an extra set of barrels in 16 or 20 gauge. Have them fitted to the gun and make it into a two or three barrel set. The barrels may be "safe" but every time you see them you will remember your "problem". Much easier to add extra barrels and get away from the problem. That would get you a great gun that would be even more versatile for hunting and clay shooting. The best thing to me about Fox is that the 16 and 20 make a great two gauge set.

In a recent post seeking advice about opening chokes with a reamer from Brownells I warned the poster about what can go wrong when the reamer gets cock-eyed as it's slid down the bore. Most of the posts folllowing mine were basically that I was "full of it". Choke opening is a simple job when everything goes right. Yeah, well sometimes everything doesn't go right. If the gouges weren't there before the barrel work was started but are there when the barrel work ended the explanation is obvious. Unless of course it's a mystery, like some religous dogmas. If the gouges were there to begin with the gunsmith should have informed you before work commenced. This is just common sense, not rocket science. Enough to make you tear your hair out.
npm

I suspect they started to pull the guide mandrel out without loosening it. That would account for longitudinal scratches all right. It will almost certainly be safe to shoot, and I am at a loss as to a satisfactory "remedy" I would ask for. I would darned sure ask for a significant percentage of what they charged you for the choke work, etc. refunded. I would got to the top with this. Turnbull did not get their reputation, or have people willing to pay what they charge for doing stuff like this.

I didn't understand if there were circumferential scratches or longitudinal scratches. Either way, one possible fix would have been to us a backboring reamer of either the original boresize (yeah right, find one to match!) or slightly overbore and recut the bores and back taper of the chokes and polish the bores up.

If you dont look down the bores

As a follow-up, I spoke personally with Doug Turnbull today regarding this problem. He could not imagine what could have caused the grooving and could offer no solutions nor reasons that they were just noticed now after all the money and time. He said they had tried and failed to hone the grooves out. The alternatives were to trash the project or finish the case colors and barrel blacking. I want it finished. After all these years this is the most expensive project I've ever done with guns and the only one to go sour. It just sucks.