doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Trapdoor strength

Help!!!
Im tangeled up in a discussion on the ASSRA site about a guy who says he saw the barrel blown out od a TD action without any damage to the action. I find it hard to believe this prehistoric receiver is tougher than the barrel threads if fit up tight.TD guys are defending the strength of the old actions. I also find it hard to believe the older steels are stronger than the modern stuff. While searching for information I found this,I think it could be aplicable to this forum.
http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/admin/product_details.php?itemID=37575
Help me understand this issue im having with the barrel blown out od the trap door.
Thanks
Tom

Have heard this one before and have my own opinion, and you've touched on both areas of concern with me.

First consider the source. Some of the ASSRA guys are genuine experts and nice fellows while others are not. How much COMPLETE and CORRECT info are you getting?

Secondly, the matter of good fitup. IMO a loose shallow thread fit in the barrel allowed it to be blown forward out of the receiver past the shallow thread engagement shoulders. This is sometimes a problem with people inexperienced in cutting square threads (most smiths, it appears).

To use this isolated example as being typical of the strenth of the trapdoor action is, IMO, a mistake. This failure mode (blowing the barrel out of the otherwise-unharmed action) is almost unheard-of below the 100K psi pressure level unless something was wrong with the fitup. AAMOF the only example I can recall is one of Ackley's Japanese actions, all other blowouts (known to me) damaged the action to some degree.

For this reason I believe there was something atypical about this example and, to me, the thread fitup is a prime suspect.

MP's tests, OTOH, are IMO much more believable, with no surprises and a measured progression to a logically valid conclusion. Certainly not definitively conclusively final, from lack of examples if nothing else, but still very believable.
Regards, Joe

Joe
My opinion exactly. Something had to strech. maby the TDs are elastic.
Do you think the modern steels like H & R and Pederosoli. are as good as the originals?
Tom

Probably better, especially better than some of the earliest examples. IMO, that is(grin).

By 1884 steel components and alloys had begun to improve dramatically and even to resemble some modern products, but in 1873 the industry was much less precise and far less knowledgeable.
Regards, Joe

Joe
I just left this piece of wisdom on the ASSRA site.

I think a good used #1 ruger could be bought for what is spent on a prehistoric Trapdoor and not thinking about the thing blowin up.
Here is Dick Trenks opinion of Trapdoor strength And i think it is more valid than some one who screws various barrels into a TD action.I think the fact that a barrel coming out of a receiver is due to his lack of thread fitting skills which to me negates the whole theory.
Read and learn
http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=494.0

Tom

Tom, I agree. Dick and I had some differences over some Pedersoli products but he was always a gentleman during our discussions and I respected his readiness to clarify things. I also respected his good engineering sense (if not his lack of modesty, but that's another story, grin). We are diminished.
Regards, Joe