Borderbill graciously gave me his complete collection of American Rifleman, 1951-1996, with the Author and Subject Index for every year.
This should provide lots of research material so more to follow!
I've already come upon this jewel
October 1955, Questions and Answers, “Strength of Damascus Barrels”
As a gunsmith I was asked to blow up a Damascus-barreled gun for exhibition purposes at a meeting on the subject of gun safety. The gun was a very old William Moore with the rib stamped: “English Fine Twist”. This would be easy, I thought, because the bores were scaly with rust, the action loose, and the stock broken.
A Super-X heavy load fired with a lanyard caused no damage. I then pounded about 10” of paper into the barrel, leaving about 8” space in front of the chamber, but again no damage was produced.
For the third trial I added 10 grs. weight of powder from another shell and also enough additional shot to take up the space of one of the fiber wads. The only visible result was that the barrels were much cleaner than at the start, and the head stamping on the last shell was ironed almost completely out. I just didn’t have the heart to go on.
If someone has been searching for a specific AR article, send me a PM with the issue and title and I'll scan or make a high resolution image thereof and return it to you by email attachment.
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