doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How many of you shoot twist guns regularly?

The problem with a 17K "proof load" is that the working pressures of damascus barrels were never that high. It is the equivalent of using a 40K proof load in a modern gun. You will blow the barrels. If memory serves, around 1907 the Belgians increased their proof loads to 1.5x the service pressure. Which would put a proof load around 10K or 11K.

Ithaca continued to decry the dangers of damascus.


The advantage of damascus was this type of burst.


It was considered safer than a longitudially welded fluid steel barrel. Which would behave like this under extreme pressures.


Of course, none of use want to experience either one up close and personal. That is why any older gun whether forge welded or fluid should be properly inspected and measured. It should only be shot using loads for which it was designed. For forge welded barrels, I draw the line at 7,000 psi.

Pete

Like everything else, we assess risk every day from a broad range of literature and experience, and act accordingly. Nothing I've read or experienced would elevate my Parker twist barrels to a higher level of risk than any other barrels. I would assess the risk dfferently if twist barrels were on a no-name or apparently hard-used gun.

PeteM, what is your statement about the front of chamber burst that you pictured? What caused it in your opinion?

Bill,

I do not know what caused the failure. I have looked at the picture a long time and never came to a conclusion. It was posted here many years ago. Perhaps the original owner is still around and will comment.

Pete

8 bore, it looks like a classic barrel obstruction case to me???

binko

Homeless - and the proof testing of a new modern day barrel really only proves that it didn't blow during the proofing. So, what's your point?

For the 3 of us still interested in this minutiae

Engines Of War: or, Historical and Experimental Observations on Ancient And Modern Warlike Machines And Implements, Including the Manufacture of Guns, Gunpowder, and Swords with remarks on Bronze, Iron, Steel, &c.
Henry Wilkinson, M.R.A.S. London 1841
p. 70 Part III On The Manufacture of Fire-Arms, And Modern Improvements.
http://books.google.com/books?id=0XJeF_o...w3u60I#PPA70,M1

Starting on p. 87 Forging of Gun-Barrels
The most approved modern method of converting…(horse-shoe nails)…into (Stub-Twist) gun-barrels after carefully sorting and picking the, to see that no cast-iron or impurities are mixed with them, is first to put about half a hundred weight into a large cast-iron drum or cylinder, crossed internally with iron bars, through the centre of which a shaft passes, which is connected by a strap with a steam-engine, and the revolution of the drum actually polishes the nails by their friction against each other; they are then sifted, by which every particle of dust is removed. The steel intended to be mixed with them is clipped by means of large shears, worked by the engine into small pieces, corresponding in size to the stubs, and afterwards cleansed by a similar process. About 40 lbs. are thrown on to the inclined hearth of an air-furnace, where they are puddled or mixed together with a long iron rod, and withdrawn in a mass called a bloom, almost in a state of fusion, to be welded under hammer of three tons weight, by which it is formed into a long square block: this being put in, at another door of the same air-furnace, is raised to a bright red heat, and drawn out under a tilt hammer of a ton and half weight, into bars of proper size to pass the rollers, by means of which it is reduced to rods of the required size.

Drew, make that four of us who are still interested in such trivia.

I shoot a Lefever that is an HE grade with twist barrels. I routinely shoot RST 2 1 /2 inch shells that are mild enough for the old girl. I also shoot the same RST shells in my 1894 Remington with damascus barrels. Good luck with your Lefever that are splendid guns....with soul!
Regards,
Tom

This certainly doesn't help Just found this c. 1886 C.G. Bonehill with Twist barrels marked "Laminated Steel"