doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Double Rifles, Paradox Guns & Gauge Rifles @ doublegunshop.com I CUT DOWN MY H&H ROYAL TO MAKE A HOWDAH RIFLE

I am unsure about the big splice in the top comb of the stock. It is very professionally inlet into the stock and was perhaps done at the time of the build. The insert is seamless and hardly noticeable.

Buckstix,

Thank you for letting us in to the real reason that underlay what seemed at first sight to be an extraordinary decision.

I hope that your original posts did not carry off too many forum readers with apoplexy.

I have seen a best quality Lang SLE double rifle with very similar damage, a massive split well down the barrel (and therefore the pressure curve) but no sign that I could see of the start of a ring bulge that you would expect from an in bore obstruction.

I suspect that both might have been caused by using over hard homogeneous bullets, without the give afforded by a lead core.

I believe that SKB is right in thinking that it once had a rubber cheek piece.

Looking at the photos it seems that the insert is cut from the original stock - suggesting that Holland and Holland were not over enthusiastic about the idea and preserved the insert in the case for later replacement.

Absolutely *NOT*.

This kind of damage is not too rare and has been well described in gun examiners' reports and literature. It has appeared always as the same, and its reason was not what you surmise.

To name it:
Faulty fluid barrel steel with linear inclusions.
(Has also been variously described in this forum over the years, as I can see)


Proofing could and would often detect such flaws, but not always.


With 95 % or rather 98 % likelihood, NOT.

Carcano