MASTER GUNSMITH ED LANDERS OR OTHER LIKE HIM HAVE DONE ENOUGH TO THIS GUN.
Can not be his work or Mr. Ed has not sold this gun. No tourch case colors are present.
What can you learn from a gun like this? Nothing for a certain fact but a lot if you try. First if the load was at fault you will most likely never know why. Loose base wad, increase powder, cocked wad, live primer in the powder. Was the barrel honed until out of proof and unsafe? Maybe, maybe not, my instant, expert, internet eye measures the wall thickness at .019 and .025 but that is just a quick guess. Has this gun seen lots of use. Yes, but so have many of the other guns that we all use. No concrete absolute answers jump out at you. But we all can learn from this gun if we are smart.
If you are going to spend money to buy and shoot old guns you need to invest in tools to evaluate them and keep them in top shape. Bore micrometers, barrel wall thickness gauges, decent bore lights, powder scales if you reload are all must own items. Learn how to use all of these tools. If you can not, then have your guns evaluated by a gunsmith that has these tools and knows how to use them. Clearly marked proofs are nothing if the gun has been worked on and the barrels screwed up. If you are not willing to do that then buy the guns for antiques and hang them on the wall.
When a set of barrels gets thin give up on them. Yes .025 may be safe to shoot, but not with 2 3/4" factory loads. And not when my hand is on that forend and you are shooting hot loads.
When a gun blows up of fails and no one is hurt you have had your best day hunting for the next ten years. Because if someone had been hurt, hurt badly, it would take about ten years for both of you to get over it. Hard to take you former hunting buddy fishing if he has only one hand. You have to bait all the hooks and take off all the big fish he catches.
