Nothing wrong with a good set of twist barrels "IF" loaded appropriately. While I Certainly do not recommend the practise I will have to say over the years I have seen any number of Twist Barrels, many of them being pitted & the guns loose as a goose, Digesting a goodly number of "Modern" SAAMI spec shells. I have not personally known of any of them "Un-Winding" like a coil spring or spreading shrapnel like a Grenade..
In fact I personally bought a Parts H grade Lefever with twist barrels, knowing it had a crack in the left barrel 14" ahead of the breech. The appearance was it had been hit against a sharp cornered object which had "Caved In" the side of the barrel. It had then likely been fired, thus damaged, & the barrel split in the corner where it had been dented in. One side of the crack was still bent inward while on the other side a little flap was raised up. Crack was approximately ¼" long & you could look through it & see the bore inside. Bore was rather heavily pitted. Stock had been cracked & had an ugly repair. Action itself was still tight & on face, though top lever was well to the left showing bolt wear but still locking down tight..
I put my dent plug under the damaged area & raised the bent in portion while simultaneously beating down the side which was lifted. Everything went back together until it became extremely hard to see just exactly where the crack was. Of course I could spot it as I knew where to look. I then tied it out to the "Firestone Proof Rack" & proceeded to fire several "Modern" 3¼-1 1/8 loads through this barrel, followed these by several more 3 3/4-1 /¼ "High Brass" loads. These were followed by some more handloads which contained 1 3/8oz shot over a recommended load of Unique powder. This was not a particularly low pressure load.
After all this firing examination showed no discernable re-opening of the crack. There were not even any "Soot" smudges around it which showed any leakage of pressure.
This all occurred some 25-30 years ago. To date even though I have used several other Lefevers on a regular basis I have yet to need a part from this gun so it still sits in my rack. This did cause me to re-assess some of my thinking. It is still a valid reminder that the differences in a twist barrel & a live Hand Grenade are simply Miles & Miles apart with no real similarities between them.
