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So even modern steel barrels fail.


Absolutely! Locally couple of years ago there were a couple of incidents involving new doubles of a very well known Italian brand. Engineers from the centuries old factory came down to look into the matter. One of the shooters, a surgeon, had serious injuries on his left hand. It was established that the bursts were caused by obstruction from faulty ammo.

I have a copy of a Mythbusters episode where they test the cartoon finger-in-the barrel myth. They used a 1877 vintage 10 bore damascus hammer gun loaded with 3" magnum slugs. The right barrel was plugged with a ballistics gel/bone finger and only about 2" of the muzzle blew and the lower rib coming loose. The left barrel was plugged with a "finger" carved out of a steel rod and soldered in place, again just 3" of the muzzle blew together with the top rib coming loose. This test is as random as it gets and damascus proved its strength without a doubt.

Couldn't find the episode on youtube but it is worth watching.

BTW, Mr. Bell did not obstruct the damascus barrel; it burst only because of highly increased pressure from "overloaded" loads.

JC

"...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance."ť Charles Darwin