doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What do you think could have caused this?

Some of you may remember that I've had a 20g Sterlingworth project going for several years now. Originally sent it to Turnbull for cleaning, choke opening, some smoothing of the rib, polishing,restocking and generally getting it ready for the engraver. They sent it to the engraver where it languished for several years. Last fall it went back to Turnbull for colors and finishing after the engraver finally finished his work.

Last week they called me and wanted to know if I still wanted to proceed as they noted that there were some .005" deep grooves inside the barrels just breech side of the chokes. They are located on the lateral (outside) walls of both barrels and about 3" long. They don't feel that they could polish them out as it might make the gun unsafe to shoot. They do feel it is safe to shoot as it is.

I told them to go ahead and finish the gun since I have about five years and several thousands of dollars invested in it but I'm just sick. Blame would be hard to assign as so many people have handled it since I last saw it five years ago. What do you think?

I thnk it stinks that you are asked that question now after all this time and the work that went in to it, Not counting all the money. Nobody spotted it before or what did someone do to it? I'm assuming that it wasn't there when you sent it. Whatever, still stinks.

Knowning you Bob, I'm sure the Sterlingworth was a good canidate for this project.

Certainly shouldn't have had anything to do with the engraver. Maybe happened when the chokes were opened? However it happened, it's a sad story.

I would question Turnbull rather to the point about this! First of all did you give the barrels a real close inspection before you sent it to Turnbull in the first place? Second did Turnbull inspect the gun before the work was started and did they mention the grooves then? If not I'm with Larry on this one, it's probably something that happened tool wise during the barrel work. I can't imagine what would cause .005" grooves in the bores other than tooling.

Turnbull should have told you about the problem before it was sent to the engraver. At the very least he should make some form of compensation for this.

Good luck I had a similar mishap with a set of barrels,I had the chokes opened on. The first time I shot the gun after the choke work both barrels ring bulged at the choke leed taper. On inspection the wall thicknes was .015" at the leeds and the well known double gun smith that did the work wouldn't stand by his work. I ended up sleeveing the barrels just to save the gun and now I'm married to the gun for life because I have so much money in it.

I feel your pain!

Bummer for you both...sorry to hear.
Dogon..I think the Smith that left you with 15 thou' of meat in your bbls should be even more well known ..WHO was it??
franc

hate to say it but it does sound like some kind of bore guide for choke reaming or internal bore clamp[to hold barrels steady while engraving] slipped while in use and scratched the bores....why else would both barrel bores be scratched in the same place....makes me sick to think about it....Im sure the barrels are still safe for shooting...but when you stick that much money and time into a project you want it to be perfect until you swing at an imaginary bird in the kitchen and hit the chandlier.........


BTW...Just a thought but didnt they have some in the white 20ga fox barrels floating around a few years ago????

As others said that is certainly a bummer and it's going to be difficult to determine who did what.

This reminds me of the barrels I sent to a "well known double gunsmith" after numerous calls to discuss his backboring capabilities. The barrels had some light pitting and I wanted them bored to an exact size, which would definitely leave enough wall thickeness. We agreed he would backbore them and not try to hone because I wanted the bores to be a uniform diameter along their lengths. I told him I would be okay if there was some pitting that could not be removed by the reamer. I also included a letter detailing the specs.

After a lot longer than he originally quoted and more phone calls he returned the barrels and I measured them with a bore mike. I found the bores were not uniform, with increased diameter here and there along the length. Needless to say the wall thickness was several thou less than it would have been if he had followed instructions. I called and he said he had decided to hone them to remove all the pitting. I reminded him about our agreement and that I wanted uniform bores, and he basically blew me off, and since he's a small time guy with little assets I really had no recourse. I chalked it up to experience.

I decided I would never use that "well known double gunsmith" again. The final straw happened last week when I needed a carton to ship another barrel elsewhere. I got the carton he used to return my barrel and found my original letter unopened in it. I had taped it to the barrel when I sent it.

Please BBS'rs don't ask me who this well known double gunsmith is. I won't slander anyone on the internet. Better to ask who to use for boring or honing work. I would highly recommend Briley. You'll probably pay more than somewhere else but you'll get what you want and you can be assured your work won't be done by a hacker.

Silvers

Silvers,
I'm with you on the slander on the internet. I know I'll never use this smith again, but I may chime in if his name comes up sometime. What really frosted me was after he did the damage he wanted to charge me $2200.00 for the sleeving job. That's after over $1000.00 in barrel work which was money thrown down the toilet. Funny you mentioned a detailed letter because on this gun the letter I sent with it specifically said to first inspect the barrels for condition, and not to proceed if they were to thin to do the work and to call me first if they had possible issues. The only thing he called about was he found a loose spot in the top rib and he charged as I remember around $300.00 to relay the rib on barrels he ruined.

I sent them to Briley for the sleeve job and in the long run they came out just fine, but only after sending them back to Briley three times because of unacceptable workmanship. They did stand by their work though,unlike the other smith.

I started calling this gun: "The gun that refused to be fixed" I now have a real nice shooter that took several North Dakota pheasants last fall. This is the spoon full of sugar that makes the medicin go down!

Live, Learn and Move-On!

I sure wish you guys would just name the smiths--even in a PM. I have no desire to to have to learn the same lesson...