Spent five hours checking guns and gun barrels today. Found two more that did not pass. Neither was a gun which I have shot or planned to shoot any time soon. Both had thin barrels below .020. I know that some will shoot .020, I no longer will. Life is too good to risk it for a marginal gun. There are other guns to use and no reason to do another dumb thing in life. Ask yourself this question. Would you let your son use that gun? If you can not say yes then do not do it yourself. I also found three sets of extra barrels and two project guns that are not shootable but I knew they were marginal at best.
One Belgian single barrel gun has the thinnest chambers I have ever seen. They measured just under .060. This gun was a "gift" to me by an old black, colored man to older people, farm worker who lived on my family farm when I was a boy. He used this gun for many years and gave it to me near the end of his life. Its' value as a gun is zero but I was touched he wanted me to have it. The firing pin is now removed and I welded the firing pin hole solid so no one ever fires it in the future. I know he must have shot several hundred rabbits and more than that in squirrels and never had a problem with it.
Next week I will continue measuring and culling the herd. All is not lost since I am taking the time to clean and oil each gun. Also serial numbers are checked against my logbook and the estimate of value for each gun is being updated. I have a little log book to let my wife know what each gun is, and how much it is worth and suggested ways to sell them after I am gone.
We still need to shoot low pressure loads to be safe but having confirmed decent barrel wall thickness will let me be a little more at ease shooting these old guns.
