Production costs also come strongly to mind as well as the Wt problem Don mentioned. There would of course be several areas where un-needed metal would have to be left which would add useless wt as Don suggested, but machining costs would be astronomicl in comparsion to conventional methods. Just not much of a way to run a Railroad.
I don't understand where the extra weight would come from? A modern multi-axis machine can contour a solid billet to match the external appearance of a conventional double. And running a machine for a production run is cheap compared to extensive handfitting.
A double shotgun barrel is not neccesarily straight. It needs to be adjusted a bit for both barrels to shoot to point of aim. It would be nearly impossible to do this if the holes were drilled in a piece of steel that includes all the parts you mention. Yes, it is being done, but not neccesarily successfully.
I thought the whole reason for regulating doubles was
because the barrels were two separate units? I would think that precision machining both bores in near perfect alignment relative to each other would allow a simple CAD operation to determine the appropriate angle each needs to be for a given convergence point?
Please keep in mind my ignorance when it comes to double guns (not machining--much experience there) so be gentle! I have no idea how double gun barrels are joined so I'm guessing when some of you refer to weight that there must be hollow sections under the ribs and between the barrels?
Thanks to all of you for participating and taking time to answer the crazy questions of a novice!
