I have told this before but has been some time so will run it again. Some years back i purchased a "Parts" condition Lefever H grade with 30" Twist bbls. 14" up from the breech on the side of the left bbl was a "Crack". This crack had the appearence as if the bbl had been hit on a sharp corner of some object which had dented it in. It was apparently then fired in this condition resulting in the crack. One side of the crack was caved inward & the opposite side was flared outward leaving a readily visible crack which you could look through & see the opposite side of the bore.
Any way I put the expanding dent plug under it & raised the dented in side & hammered down the flared side which closed the crack till it was virtually invisable. I then proceded to place it in the "Firestone" proof bench & fire several rounds through via a string from behind a hefty Black Walnut tree. Started with factory 3DE-1 1/8OZ loads, then went to factory Rem Express 3 3/4DE-1¼OZ loads. I had some handloads which were an approximate 3¼DE-1 3/8OZ so fired a few of those also. Through all of this the crack did not re-open, no smudge was visable on the exterior of the bbl, in fact there were no signs at all it was not a totally solid barrel. I do not shoot it of course & so far haven't needed any of its parts so it sits still in storage.
I can locate he crack "Because" I know where it is. Anyone else would be hard put to find it. The bores are also heavily pitted, the stock had to be taped up to hold together for the firing & one sear is worn so is very touchy, wouldn't trust it to carry, so it is a parts gun besides just the bbl crack. I truly expected that crack to open back up on firing though so was totally surprised when it didn't. The crack did run along with the spiral of the twist & was at least ¼" in length, maybe as much as 3/8" right out on the left side of the bbl..
