Mike;
There is one thing I can most definitely agree with you on. That is that we simply need to discuss this like Men, no sniping etc. I will try my level best to do so. All that I can go with is like they say in a court of law, The Preponderance of the Evidence.
Let me state that carefully one more time.
My copy of the L C Smith Plans & Specifications is copyrighted 1981 by F Brownell & Son. I pre-ordered this book when notice was sent out of its up-coming publishment. It came with a facsimile of the title block of an actual shop drawing attached inside, declared the book to be #1328, Autographed by William Brophy & dated Nov 15, 1981. Sometime shortly after receiving this book in studying over the drawings therein I noted the barrel specs which I have cited. I became curious as to just how some of my guns compared to the Smith specs, so set about to find out. Measuring the space at the breech & muzzle is extremely easy. I picked about three sets of barrels to compare, don't even recall exactly which ones now. The first thing that struck me was that just taking the spacing of the two ends & considering the lengths of these barrels they all showed a total convergence of from 011" to .012" per inch of length or virtually identical to the Smith specs. Next I carefully measured & marked regular intervals along the length of the barrels (about 2" intervals as I recall) until I came to the area of the barrel flats where it was no longer practical. A careful measurement of the outside of these barrels compared to the measurement across their outer widths did indeed show that as far as their OD's went they had the same convergence on a linear basis as their two ends had exibeted. There is of course still the factor that the bores are not necessarily concentric with their OD's. I did take all this into consideration. I did do the sight check & to the best of my ability & knowledge they were about as straight as they could be. At this point I am not totally certain whether I used the concentric circle or the back lighted window, though I do more commonly use the frame shadow line & this is most likely what I used. While these are the only ones I have ever measured to this extent I have looked down the bores of many sets of barrels over the years to see if I could spot one that had those swamped in barrels, as I have Heard this "Theory" for years. Do date I have not encountered a single barrel set which showed this swamping.
That in a Nutshell is the preponderance of my Evidence.
Now I am ready to honestly & manly review any evidence you can present which actually shows a set of barrels to have been constructed in this manner. I promise to give it my utmost attention & consideration with no snidey remarks.
Best I have to offer.
