After seeing Topgun's last post, thought to share with you my experience w/a graded Krupp fluid steel bbl'd 12 I have. It became a 'self-opener' after shooting helice & clay targets w/it for some time. Nothing seriously high pressure or 'hot' was ever shot in it by me, lower pressure 1oz reloads for the most part and certianly a number of normal pressue 2&3/4dr. target loads from time to time as well. Can't vouch for what it was fed in the many decades before I acquired it, but it was still locking up tight though it showed some almost not detectable minor face issues when I first acquired it, i.e., holding it by the bbls w/forearm off and doing the side to side shake routine. You almost couldn't feel any play at all, but there was just a tiny bit. As soon as the self opening started I sent it to a qualified smith to be dealt with at his leisure. It is now fitted with a new hinge pin and several other parts were fabricated from scratch to get it all back like it really needed to be. It will get nothing but low pressure 1oz. loads from this point forward, for sure. Its old metal in these old guns and that's that, even a high pressure prooved gun from 1900 had softer/milder steel in its action when compared to today's standards & so if you are going to shoot them a lot eventually there will be wear. Also, I do not wish to go to the expense of having to replace its nice stock and even though mechanically it is now technically ready for another hundred years of shooting, the headstock wood is likely not up to any excessive pounding, something that should always be taken into consideration and all too often is not. It is a fun gun to shoot & has the Hollenbeck 'switch' in its forearm. Whether or not it was worth the expense to put it back on face and do the other work was set aside for the fun factor and the fact you don't see them on every corner.
Jack's Damascus is a really nice example. Perhaps he'd can be talked into posting its pic for us.
