buzz,
You wrote on page 8:
"What prompted me to create this thread was a recent visit to a gunsmith who had what appeared to be an almost new Ithaca NID 20b hanging off his wall. The gun looked very nice with the exception that the right barrel from just ahead the breech to about 25 cm was filleted wide open. The gun looked nice, but barrel wall thickness was less than .010". Obviously, some rogue redid the gun and then passed it off to an unsuspecting consumer. As the story goes, this gun was given to a kid, who shot the damn thing and was fortunately unharmed."
At or just befor the rupture how thick were the barrels? A thickness of ..10 at the muzzle is safe for pressure at that point. It would just dent far too easy. Only .010" at the forcing cone it is certainly not safe!
Is this the only rupture that you have seen? Why do I ask? Because there are many tales of ruptures and blown barrels but most people have never seen one. Certainly in the case you refer to at least one barrel was homed or reamed far too thin.
Most of use have never seen a breach rupture.
I contend that while this certainly could be a life threatening problem, ruptures are rare even on guns that have had chambers and forcing cones lenghtened.
Is a commercial proof house a good idea? Yes.
Do we need a government proof house? Certainly NOT!
Last edited by MarkOue; 12/20/11 07:13 PM.
