I have fired several twist & damascus guns with low pressure handloads, both smokeless & black. None of these have I had proofed or attempted to proof myself, didn't really seem worth the trouble in one case or the expense in the other. I Have Strapped one gun in a tire & fired it, not proofed it. I have never fired this gun otherwise & likely never will. Why? it has a split in the side of bbl about 14" up from the breech. I bought it as a parts gun with the bbl split & a taped up stock. It is a Lefever H with "London Twist" bbls. The split followed a weld line about ¼" long on left side of left bbl. Appearance was that it had been hit on a sharp cornered object & dented in badly & then fired in that condition. This resulted in the bbl cracking along the corner & one side of the split was still pushed in, but on the other side a little flap was lifted externally (could look right through at the opposite bore wall). I put a dent plug under it, raised the internal dent & hammered the external flap down to meet & it became extremely difficult to even see. Mostly out of curiosity I strapped it to the tire to see what would happen. I fully expected it to open up at the seam, it was after all already broken. I started with factory 3¼-1 1/8 loads & put several through it. "Nothing"!! I then went to some 3 3/4-1¼ loads & put several of these through it. These were the heaviest factory loads I had so then put a few 1 3/8 oz handloads I had, Still NaDA. What did I prove? in my estimation a big fat Nothing. However it is noted none of the loads I fired were equal in pressure to a proof load, but were higher in pressure than I shoot in my twist bbls.
My question is "Still" What?? inherent damage did I do to this gun, that would not occur by having a still higher pressur proof load fired through it, even by an Official ProofMaster, with official checks.
I still will not fire this gun from the shoulder, not because of any real or imagined damage I did by firing those loads, But BECAUSE I KNOW there is a crack up there close to where my left hand would fall & it goes completely through the bbl wall. Incidently the bores were quite rough with pitting as well. The gun still locks up tight though. With the ball joint screw completely removed the dolls head still brings it tight enough on face the top lever hardly passes center. Argue all you want, no one has convinced me that doesn't re-inforce an action bar.
