doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What made it blow up game. Care to play?

At a shoot today and this happened. Important thing is shooter was unscathed. What do our experts have to say?

. Here are some details. LC Smith Feather weight. Factory trap load.

Without doing a full metallurgic testing of the steel the obvious thought was a blockage . Questions to asked what cartridge was used and if it was a factory or home load .
I have seen many burst barrels and some you can never say the exact cause ,its very fortunate no one was injured .

Just old tired steel...

Obstruction + SAAMI pressure = burst barrel, whether old or new.

SRH

Did this happen on the first shot of the day?
Was the fired hull retained?
Is there a dent on the left barrel or is that just a shadow?
I�m guessing an obstruction or restriction. Without a full examination we are all guessing which is what was asked for.

Reminds me of the burst I saw when a confused trapshooter loaded pistol powder in his reloads. Same longitudinal ripping. About the same distance down stream too.

Is it a later Field with a Single Sighting Plane rib?
May we assume you have already measured the wall thickness around the edges of the burst?

It does not look like an obstructional burst with a ring bulge, and if the top rib is not lifted likely was not; the bottom rib obviously separated





nor does it look like the usual thin wall split



Circumferential burst at mid-barrel with jagged edges (abrupt cleavage with little plastic deformation) suggests a barrel defect.

At the breech, very high pressure.



Could there have been a previous dent or bulge that was inexpertly repaired?

This would seems to be a good opportunity for Frank to cut and paste from a textbook of metallurgy and help us understand how barrel steel gets "old and tired"

Let's just say for now, that I know a lot more than I'm letting on. Nothing to lose here, look at the pics make your best guess and if you can explain why.