doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 2000 rounds/yr through vintage English Double?

Just remember the same engineering and steel of that gun was in the Titanic.

A bit off topic, but I truly hope I am fortunate enough to be concerned about wearing out a gun or two once I am retired. Use it in good health & enjoy!!

Which means your gun should be safe as long as you don't hit an iceberg!

Bro. pooch: no doubt a lot better steel

H.P Leighly, professor emeritus of Metallurgical Engineering at University of Missouri � Rolla published a study of the steel used in the hull of the RMS Titanic in the January 1998 issue of Journal of Metals, the publication of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/jom/9801/felkins-9801.html

The �acid-lined open hearth� (not Bessemer) steel used in the construction of the hull, from the steelworks of David Colville and Co., was similar to AISI 1018 but with a slightly higher phosphorus, much higher sulfur, and lower manganese concentration. The tensile strength was 65,000 psi, and the low Mn:S ratio made the metal more brittle (lower impact strength) in the cold temperature.
C - .21%
Mn - .47%
P - .045%
S - .07%
Photomicrographs showed �dirty steel� with both silicate and sulfide (iron sulfide and manganese sulfide) inclusions; slag.

You never know what you are liable to run into on a clay's range.

Well pooch if you are talking about the Purdey I do believe that there is some forty plus years between the two the gun is Victorian the Titanic was Edwardian. Also the Steel plate and rivets used in the Titanic where not of the Quality recommended by the ships designers. In fact it was an inferior more brittle grade used due to pressure from the ships owners the White Star Line to keep costs down so the bean counters got their way again. Now when it comes to ship engineering Harland & Wolff where second to none they put the ship together correctly given the cash restraints they where working under, though Purdey had no restraints at all they used the very best of everything that includes the steel Iron and Engineering hence the guns longevity.
And as for the quality of materials and Engineering painting blame with a large brush is rather unwise. Lets see was it the materials poor engineering or cost cutting that caused the shuttle "Challenger" unpleasantness not so long ago. The materials and engineering from that age are all around us today.

Challenger: rubber gaskets, I believe, not likely cost-cutting.

Challenger was an operations management failure.

The limitations of the system were known, yet disregarded.

The Titanic and Challenger accidents are remarkably similar, both caused by unwarranted haste.

Your gun, well made as it is, would be similarly doomed in the hands of an idiot.

They wanted the world record for a transatlantic voyage. And it would not have mattered how the ship was built if they would have just slowed down.

Yes, and Challenger was launched lest the public lose interest in the 'teacher in space' grandstanding.

People die for the stupidest reasons sometimes.