Had a very productive meeting at METL this am with both a metallurgist (Andrea) and metallurgical engineer (Ryan). They were quite enthusiastic saying "This is ALOT more interesting that broken bolts!" and a bunch of the employees are "gun guys".
They also commented that the machinists had tears in their eyes chopping up the actions for composition analysis
I gave them the remains for mementos
These again are the questions:
1. Does the divot represent the failure initiation point, and is there evidence of porosity and/or a flaw there?
2. Is there evidence that the breech end barrel wall was over-heated in the original brazing?
3. Is there evidence that the braze joint failed, or that it was never properly brazed?
4. Is there evidence of low cycle fatigue?
re: #1 and #2 they agreed there was visual suggestion thereof, but were also quite clear in saying that they are frequently proved wrong by the microscopic examination.
re: #3 & #4 no way to tell without microscopic exam.
They agreed it would be much easier (cheaper) if we had the missing chunk, but we don't, so they will cut out the segment of barrel in question and do scanning electron microscopy to definitively answer those questions. They will provide full size images for posting here and on my website.
