doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrel Imtegrity Question.

is it a sharp crease or wavey like riffeling....

Mike Orlen is a good barrel man, IMHO.

If I were you, I'd put no more rounds through that barrel until after it was inspected, and even then I'd be leery of it.

FWIW, no one is going to come right out and say "it's safe", if only out of liability concerns.

I don't think I could get a photo of it because it is very slight.
Gunut, it is more like riffeling, it is barely visible on the outside and inside of the barrel. Could be riffeling, it is only in one spot and on one the 3 o'clock position of the barrel. Maybe an old dent hammered out???

Any contact info for Mike?

This sounds like a common dent that occurred like most: the gun fell over or was swung against a corner of something.

Locate a competent gunsmith that has experience with old doubles. Get him to look it over and give his assessment. Post some pictures here and get the crowd's assessment. You'll get everything from "...I'd never fire that gun again" to "It'll be stronger thene"

With regard to longitudinal vz. radial, I'd say your dent is the better of the two. Hoop stresses are higher than longitudinal stresses.

Barrel steel in general is very mallable. It is less prone to cracking than most would believe. If you look at many high grade guns and high grade LC Smiths, you find many examples of heavy engraving right over the chamber. These engravings have very sharp cornered cuts and are about as perfect a stress riser as you could manufacture. Yet, when have you heard of a chamber failing on one of these engraved guns?

Isn't it Rivelling?...spelling is prolly off, but it's with a v not an f if your talking a about those wavey lines on a bbl
franc

Here's Mike's info: http://users.dls.net/~rdouglas/MikeOrlen.pdf

AFAIK, those prices are still good. He can be slow answering email.

Thanks guys. BTW what happened to my 3rd star???

imp/mod;
you must have said something bad....



thanks Franc.....

Question about "still building pressure at the 10 inch mark": Seems everything I've read indicates that max pressure is always reached inside the chamber (with both black and smokeless powder), after which there's a gradual decline. Some powders lose pressure quicker than others, but I don't recall any instance of pressure still building at the 10" mark. Were that true, wouldn't our barrel walls need to be as thick at that point as they are in the chambers?