doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrels, not what they should be?

With all the hot topics of collector's grades, handsome wood, engraving style and the amount of case color - not much about finely struck barrels. After all, the barrels are the heart and soul of a gun. They are the difference between the collector's cabinet piece and the gamegun.
The vintage Americans, and the non-Brits seem to be sluggish in the lively barrel department.
Looked at some high end Spanish clones, they've got somethings right...but what about the barrels?

So you could take a Winchester M24 and stick on some 'finely struck' barrels and it becomes a cabinet piece?

That's a little like arguing a woman's true beauty lies in her elbows.

The barrels on most classic American doubles are fit for lumberjack!

I was thinking it was more equivalent to parts more inboard and slightly upward, hopefully.

But to Lowell's thoughts, I recall my AYA #2 having very nicely struck barrels and thinking they were fairly thin. From what Lowell has mentioned on this subject several times, it appears he values not only a well finished exterior with consistant wallthickness, but also very thin walls. So, I guess that AYA was well struck.

Lowell, the H&H video spends a bit of time with the barrel guys showing the various steps in achieving what you brought up. I highly recommend it, if you don't already have it.

I got nothin!

jack

I'd think there is more to a lively set of barrels than being struck thin. Balance achieved along the entire length is the thing. The truth is, barrels are what seperates good guns from great guns. Some of the high grade American cabinet pieces(grade, condition and the percent of case color sorts) barrels are not that much off the field grades, if any.
GregSY, maybe you've not found those great set of barrels yet - or so it sounds!

Don't mount and swing while looking at the gun. Don't thrash it about while looking at it. This will resolve many of the issues of these seminars in comparative gunology. Personally, I think I'd rather drive a 28" AyA than push a 30" SW. But taking one thing with another as Garwood used to say, and then taking them to pieces and reassembling some other way, and disregarding the light 16 and the swizzlestick 28 and the fact that yours has been honed out three times and mine hasn't and that the Japs never once considered filing down the outsides of theirs, your desirable shootin iron is the one you hit something with rather than the one you can wiggle around in the air like a baton cause it's got more in the middle. And life's too short to shoot with an ugly gun so we have to settle for shooting some of the pretty ones occasionally. And you can never have too many so why not just have some of each?

jack

It seems to me that on this side of the pond we traded grace and charm for price, hard use, daily service and food on the table.

Now that most no longer "hunt or go hungry" we can worry about the finery.

Now I've never really hunted a super high grade AH Fox, but it would be a shame to say it shot much like my Sterlingworth.
Thousands upon thousands seperate the two in cost, and one would hope that something other than ligthnin' bolts would grace the barrel work.
Buy the barrels, and the better the better?
Unless it's a wand of a smallbore, not much is said about the barrels from the well beyond the field grade boys.
I suspect no dew on the barrels of these one-up-manshippers.

Lowell close your eyes and keep telling yourself that Sterlingworth is a Super Fox....try it in a thunderstorm and you might manage to get some lightning bolts.