doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com pressure safe for LC Smith

James:

Look for an earlier post here about Heus-Riga Fils barrels where Dr. Drew and I bantered back and forth about relative barrel strengths between damascus-types and both early and later fluid steels. Dr. Drew is understandably hesitant to endorse any type of table where the different types of barrel materials were compared as to their tensile or "burst" strengths, but there is a minor summary proposed (by me). That summary assumes, of course, that the barrels in question are at or near factory specification. Any damage or other structural issues (pitting, thinning, etc.) would and should alter any evaluation as to relative strength. That thread would give you a good place to start from in your own education about the relative "robustness" (for lack of a better term) of the different types of weapons being built during your gun's period of manufacture. LC Smiths are a tradition in my family, going well-past my Grandfather's generation so I do have some familiarity.

Some of the confusion is that we differ in opinions on what is safe for Smiths from two different perspectives. One is the barrel and action maximum pressure in psi. And most solid Smiths should handle load to X,XXX to XX,XXX psi. It is peak pressure not pressure over time or distance. Most pressure peaks are within one inch of the chamber I am told so a 8K load is worst there and maybe 4K are the muzzle where the barrels are thinner.

The second is the pressure, that is safe for the stocks and that is where some people get things confused. It is not the pressure but the recoil that is the problem. For some reason people think recoil is directly related to pressure it is not. It is forces, over time, not pressure in a hoop strain situation. How fast is the load, how heavy is the load and the burning curve for it? That is why I shoot mostly lighter, lower velocity, slower burning powders to get less pressure loads to reduce the risk of cracks in the stocks. Most are one ounce, at 1150 fps with pressures from 5-7K.

For a steel barreled gun, in moderate use, I would feel comfortable with your 7/8 ounce load but the full ounce would seems too high for me. Again it is not as much a question of the action and barrel limit but the stock cracking limit. And one ounce recoil should still be less stress than heavier lead loads but I choose to go lighter in deference to the stock cracking issues.