Mike Campbell is getting real close to the bottom line, using both sarcasm and engineering knowledge to reach the goal. He knows that fit and battering are the only things we have to worry about unless our barrels blow up. Guns that were made last year don't normally succumb from battering, even Huglus. Guns that are designed and fit well don't normally succumb from any normal use, even heavy use of high pressure or heavily loaded ammunition. His sarcastic mention of the Fox refers to the fact that a Fox, properly bolted and lubricated, will put up with decades of heavy use without the negative results of battering. I own a Parker shotgun that has been abused with many thousands of rounds of heavy recoiling ammunition over eighty plus years, but it shows no sign of battering because it has always been kept tight. Looseness is the prime cause of wear caused by battering. If a good gun is kept tight and lubricated, battering is just not a factor in wear. Further proof that a well designed tight gun prevents signs of battering is in the longevity of single barrel trap guns that have fired tens of thousands of rounds of 1 1/4 ounce loads in their early history and more tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of rounds of rather high pressure 1 1/8 ounce loads in the last seventy years, and are still tight. All this discussion is very interesting, but selecting a well designed, tight gun will prevent any of the negative effects of either pressure or recoil.
Mr eightbore and one last question for clarification if you don't mind.
What causes the gun to shoot loose? Is it pressure which is contained within the barrel, chamber and ejecta? Is it recoil which slams the barrels down, causing what we commonly refer to as barrel flip, that deflect the barrels which attempt to rotate around the hinge pin, place unequal torque on the hinge pin, puts severe stress on the locking mechanism(s) and batters the barrel lug against the frame which in turn transfers that force to the stock and finally to the shooter?
Mr Rocketman I asked this question earlier and you either missed it or are just blowing me off but I would really appreciate an answer.
Just how does the pressure, which is contained within a closed vessel (the chamber, barrel and ejecta), transfer energy to the metal parts of the gun causing wear, as you stated in your previous response, when there is no way to transfer tht pressure exerted from ignition of the powder charge to the frame, forend iron, hinge pin, and locking mechanism(s).
