Good morning gentleman. Ive been gone awhile, good to be back. A year ago last Oct. I burst the right barrel on a Fox CE 12ga. with # 4 barrels I made a few calls and sent the gun to David Yale in Colo. He had the gun for 17 months and never touched it after promising 9 months to a year turn around. I now have it back and will either have someone else do the work or will post it for sale on this sight. I was hunting in Iowa, 60 degrees, Win factory 23/4" 11/4oz #6 at 1250fps. The shell before recoiled normaly and ejected fine. The next sheel opened the barrel just in front of the forearm for 8". The bores mic out at .729 and the barrels were never reblued. The barrel wall thickness at the break mic .018. No sign of a bulge, just a wide rip. Once I figure out how to put a pic on here I will. Thanks Bob
"Yeah" I Know everyone probably gets tired of me saying it "But" Monoblocking can only be done when building New bbls, or Re-tubing a set of original monoblock bbls.
One "Cannot Monoblock" a set of "Original" Fox bbls, they were brazed together, not built from a single block.
I just like to keep terminology as "Pure" as possible.
Thus, in assembling breech loading bbls we have such terms as; conventional lump, dovetail lump, shoe lump, chopper lump/demi block, dovetail chopper lump, monoblock, etc all referring to "Different" original methods of assembly.
Re-tubing, most often called, sleeving, can be done to any of them.
Also try Mr. Hugh Lomas
http://hglomasgunmakers.com/repairs.htmlJust so you don't get sticker shock, it's going to be in the $2k-2.5k range for a quality 'sleeving' job. A decent CE 12g is going for around $4k plus or minus. When you're gun is 'sleeved', it will be worth somewhat less than that. How much is argueable. I figure at least about 3/4ths or less. It's definitely something that needs to be considered.
I think it's going to find a new home. It's a shame in that it was that one gun you hope to hunt with the rest of your life, a real sweetie! Insurance took most of the financial sting out of it and thankfuly no one was hurt. Thanks for your help and if anyone has any other thoughts please post them. The gun has 50% to 60% case with some very nice uncut wood. 1922 manufactured and was 6.5lbs. with 26" barrels. Any thoughts on value? I will post a pic on Mon.
I'm curious, what type of insurance covered this type of loss? Also could you tell us if the barrels had any bulges, pits, dents or other damage that might have contributed to this? One final thought before you part this gun out... didn't CSM have some new in the white Fox barrels a while back? I used to see used ones pop up on E-bay once in a while before they banned listing most gun parts.
Obviously it has some value for at the very least, parts.
You may also try a guy up in Canada. Precision Gunsmithing was the name in Ontario. A UK transplant. I spoke to him and bought a gun from him. We discussed sleeving a damascus gun at the time. His price was very reasonable. He may be able to save the gun and do it for something in less than $2k, maybe quite a bit. Also, since only one tube let go, it's possible to have one tube sleeved, maybe saving 25-33%. Another smith that seems to be able do some great saves for less than first thought who's name keeps coming up in these situations is Keith Kearcher
http://members.toast.net/keithkearcher/My point is; don't give up on it until you get at least one quote, preferably two.
The insurance is the easy part. State Farm, you can insure any firearm separately and don't need an appraisal up to $5000.00. They take photos of the gun and I had this covered at $5000.00 and that ran me $78.00 a year. It covers everything, theft, fire, damage. My agent loaned a nice Sauer sxs to a brother in law who left the shotgun leaning against the rear wheel of his hunting rig and then drove over it. He was covered. Another person dropped a rifle from a tree stand and bent the barrel, he was covered. I will contact these other gentleman and go from there. Thanks, Bob
The gunsmith to whom ChuckH is referring is Steve at Precision Arms, King City, Ontario, 905-833-7151.
My heart reaches out to you. I had a similar thing happen to my Fox CE grade 12ga. My problem was caused by David Yale! I had him open the chokes and he under cut the leads at the choke taper. When I shot the gun both barrels bulged at the choke lead. When I sent it back to David he said the wall thickness in this area was .015" and the gun is unsafe to shoot.
When I asked him about sleeving the barrels to save the gun he gave me his full price quote for sleeveing. This is after I paid him over $1200.00 for the barrel work he did I.E. Chokes,forceing cones,reblue,Etc. which is now flushed money due to the bulges. I asked him since he was the one that cut the barrel wall thickness down that far when he opened the chokes if he would give me a break on the sleeving price. Keep in mind factory Fox chokes are up-to four inches long and these started out at .038 and .040 constrictions originally and they bulged two inches from the muzzle. David flatly refused any discount and quoted the same full price of $2200.00 for the sleeve job.
I ended up having Briley do the sleeve job and after having to send it back to them three times they finaly got them done right. I now have a real nice Fox CE-12 that is one heck of a shooter with new barrels. Unfortunetly I'm now married to this gun, but thats OK I saved a real nice 1914 CE grade Fox from the parts bin and it shot several Pheasants the last two seasons. Part out your gun and you wont be able to say that.
If I had to do the sleeve job again I wouldn't hesitate, but I would have Kirk Merrington do the work. From what I can tell he is the best.