doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Clarke 20 Bore - Failed :(

well this is opportunity knocking you can learn to re-sleev it.that is terrible after all that work.i bought a c. boswell from a dealer it had loose ribs when i took the ribs off the whole barrels fell a part the dealer told me to screw myself because i worked on it .well just an opportunity to learn mc

Be grateful you have your fingers. I shoot damascus but won't go near ones with bulges or dents that have been raised.

Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks very very thin in one picture. Perhaps the bulge was still a little high after the attempt to cold form it down and the repairer filed it to make it disappear?

I'd have no problem sleeving it to address the issue. Once it's sleeved it's gonna be good to go, on the barrels anyway. You'll rest easy knowing the barrels are of a known thickness.

The value of the gun dictates it isn't worth sleeving I think. I think Buzz is bang on. Once a bulge always a bulge. I hadn't considered it at the time but it's true. I'm going to see my barrel man anyway tomorrow to see what he says. It'll look nice on the wall though. Unless I can get it sleeved for 3-400 quid it isnt worth doing I think. I'm not sure if one can put a single tube in place of the old one?

And my BIG question still is...HOW DID this gun pass a full Birmingham proof test 2 months ago?!

Cheers
T

Hi Tony I have seen a few �500 sleeving jobs recently but I would not bother they were pretty grim,poor rib work badly struck up etc, at least it did not blow completely and you are in one piece.

So sad. It was a pretty gun. Glad you and everyone else are unhurt.

I dunno whether sleeving is the way to go or just plain old rebarrelling using the existing for a monobloc. I know, someone's going to get the pitchfork and torches crowd pic and plant it here, too, but if it were me I'd go the whole distance and just get the barrels replaced. They both should be considered compromised - one empirically proven and the other guilty by association.

Of course, in rebarrelling, you might be able to go to 24 or (better) 28 ga barrels....

As to how it passed proof? That's a good question to be posed in a grave-faced sitdown and show-and-tell at the proof house.

Re-barreling over here is crazy money. It was suggested to me 6K. The gun aint worth 2K even if it had good barrels. So, it's either sleeving or leaving it. Having said that I don't know if the crack is to far back for sleeving either.

Will reveal all once I sit down with my barrel man tomorrow to see what he thinks and in particular how the heck this came "flying" through proof...

T

Tony,
It's far enough forward for sleeving. All you need to sleeve is a good few inches from the breach.

As to how it happened to pass proof, it was marginally strong enough and the proof load imparted what was likely the fatal stress spike but it didn't show. Fatigue failures are not visually detectable nor are they detectable by common magnaflux, dye penetrant, or ultrasonic inspection methods.

Seems a fair explanation Chuck. Thanks.
T

I would really, really, really, really like to know the wall thickness at and near the split. How far from the breech is it?

Sorry for your disappointment.

Best,

Mike