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

I looked at a couple of nice but not minty shotguns recently. One was a Fox A grade 16g the other an Ithaca NID 10g. Both had perfect bores. I held each gun up and sighted down the side of the barrels. Each showed small rises and falls, they weren't actual bulges or rivals and were very slight. Are these normal for this type of gun. I guess buffing on a wheel perpendicular to the barrel may cause this but I thought most barrel striking was done end to end.
Thanks, terc

Who knows what abuse they suffered in 75 years of use and home gunsmiths. I'd measure the barrels and see how thick they are and go from there. Finish barrels might not have been perfect to start with.

No telling.

Striking barrels is one of the harder things to do correctly in my experience, in the wrong hands striking can look bad. I'd wager a lot of inexpensive guns weren't struck at all or not very well. It's extremely time consuming thus costly.

I have had about 10 Foxes and the two I have now are very different. The 12 bore made in 1914 has very smooth well struck barrels. It also shows a bit of workmanship even though it is a Sterlingworth. They other is a 1934 Savage gun that is a great shooter, but has wavy barrels...not struck well. Most of the Foxes I have owned had pretty nice barrels.

I noticed the same thing my self on LOwer grade fox guns made starting in the nineteens and more so on Savage guns. Its common too with lower late Ithaca's. Factories must have paid less attention to striking. In all cases my mic shows uniform dia through full run of the bore.

I've owned (and still own) a bunch of Foxes. I'd say barrel striking was not the best. In the right light I could find waves in all of them to varying degrees.