With a serious bulge at the breech where the pressure is at its peak striking off a bulge would be a very bad idea. The metal has already been stretched beyond its elastic limit creating an unknown variable. My eyes and fingers are much too valuable to attempt that type of repair. I have successfully removed bulges further forward in an area of the barrel where the pressure has dropped substantially by pounding down as much as possible and then striking off the high spots. I am unsure if this is the gun I think it is....if so it has been in my shop a couple of times and a safe and cost effective solution has not been found so far. Fitting a used set of barrels will most likely be the answer as the amount of work to fit a NOS set is cost prohibitive in most cases. They require many many hours of careful fitting.
SKB is right on target. I had Kirk fit an NOS set of barrels to my Ideal 16, giving him what I thought was a hefty deposit. He did them in record time, and when I asked what the balance was, I asked if that was the total or
additional to the deposit already given (he had explained up front that the charges would be actual bench time, and that it was difficult to estimate). "Additional."
As I wrote the check (absolutely top drawer work, BTW), I said "looks like I'm helping pay for that trip to the Bahamas."
"No, but you are helping with my wife's trip back to England."
Mike
