I want to thank all of you for your information, and especially the fascinating links to data on barrel strength, plus the images to demonstrate the wooden stock differences.
One question I had about one of the pieces of advice- be sure the hammers are fully cocked before dis-assembly. Why? I have the LC Smith Hammer Cocking tool, to make recocking without the forend/barrels possible. My thought was leaving it uncocked would be more reliable, as I get it out to shoot once every year or two [a few options to rotate through, and no time for any of them].
IF I am using the LC Smith tool to recock, is there some other reason I should leave them cocked?
I really enjoyed reading the info on the different steel compositions. I just wish more people had contributed samples, to give a fuller comparison. However, I am not offering up my shotguns on the alter of scientific discovery, so I understand.
From all of the reading and comparison to what I own, it seems that the Winchester Proof Steel barrels are the strongest. However, I couldn't get a definitive sense of how to ranke the Parker Trojan [1915] vs the LC Smith Armor [1947] vs JPSauer [Spezial LuftStahl Bochumer Verein-1960?]. It seemed that it would be, in strong to less so, Bochumer LuftStahl '60, then LC Armor 1947, and then Trojan '15.
Drew- does this seem like a close ranking?
I do appreciate all the detail- this makes for more fun reading than my students' essays!
