doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca Barrel Safety Concern

This is a question for you barrel/pressure experts. I recently discovered that my favorite NID skeet gun has had a modification that raises a serious safety issue. The right ejector guide pin evidently broke off at some point leaving a piece of it in the hole. A repair was made by adding a new pin in a different location requiring a new hole be drilled in the base of the barrel. The hole in the photo lower left is the original, the ho;e in the upper right is the 'new hole.' Notice how close it is the the edge of the chamber. All this came to light recently when I had Gunter dust up the lazy right ejector. The original guide hole had been filled with solder or something and was not viable before Gunter. I have shot this gun a lot but am now concerned as Gunter cautioned that it could blow and showed me a photo of one that did blow and the failure started at the guide pin hole. I do value body parts and am looking for a "fix" if there is one. Any suggestions?

I don't want to end up with this!

Don't have a fix for you, Walter--but I'd worry too. Not much metal left between the new hole and the chamber. And remembering Sherman Bell's destruction tests, at least one of those old Parkers blew out from where the extractor rod was placed, between the chambers. A whole lot more pressure than a normal load to get it to do that, but there was also a whole lot more metal between the extractors and the chamber walls.

Walt,
Possibly sleeving the chamber might save this. Maybe, maybe not.

Pretty scary looking to me. I think the failure would be a fatigue crack thru both webs and eventually splitting the chamber wide open.

Is that a 410 in the picture of the blown gun?

Chuck, a 28 ga., cause, we think a barrel obstruction as we were shooting Estate reloads that were known for separating plastic from base.
My "fix" is to have Gunter fit a new old stock barrel set(the one I had for sale). The original barrels are factory S/S that are rare in the NID world. I was hoping for a 'hail Mary" to salvage the, How about some smaller gauge chamber inserts?

If a good tig experienced welder opened the chamber side up and carefully filled it(it's no more than 3/4 inch ,right ?),re-chambered and polished , then had it put under x-ray to check for flaw's ...could that be a viable repair?

Just thinking out loud and trying to help.

I would use Briley full length tubes, choked or not
I have a 12 gauge Baker with a smallhole in one barrel and
am now using 28 gauge Briley tubes to keep it a shooter.
P.S. NOT the paragon
Mike

I assume it's a 12. So, I'd buy the Gaugemate Golds which are made to stay in the chamber while the empty is extracted.

If you went from 12 to 20, it would be a continous stainless steel cylinder which should take a lot of pressure off the chamber. I believe the ones from 12 to 16 have a longitudinal split. Call them to make sure. They might have some data on how much pressure is taken off of the original chamber.

I have patterned 12 to 20 a few times compared to the 12 pattern, the 20 ga Gaugemate out of the 12 bore gave about a 1" larger pattern.

http://www.gaugemate.com/purchase/gaugemate-gold

How about installing permanent gauge reducing inserts? Then no one will have a problem if the inserts are forgotton, since it is a safety concern.

I like the possibility Chuck raised - having the chamber sleeved. Perhaps Merrington or Kearcher or Orlen.

I have found all three of them easy to talk to.

Best,


Mike

The large photo also shows the barrel lug insert. I've never noticed before, but the actual barrel wall is very thin by the lug. To me it looks more fragil than the area by the hole.
Dave