doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Southern SxS barrel burst

In the previous thread, Doc Drew showed a blow up picture, on May 6, with braze showing a clean bronze color. That braze was not likely to have been exposed to oxidizing conditions until the moment of the blow up.

Is the thought now that the factory sent this gun out the door with what appears to be a large pit in the chamber area and what appears to be a braze joint that was never complete? Nothing changed or affected the chamber area of this gun in the last hundred years?

I did not think the braze looked at all clean. Quite the opposite.

I don't think there was a pit originally, maybe not even a crack, but rather just a weak spot with nothing behind it to support and eventually that worked into a crack and it was all downhill from there. But in any event, it was bad from the beginning.

Lacking magic x-ray vision glasses I will ask (pay) the metallurgical engineer at METL to examine the presumed failure initiator point and if photomicrographs can confirm failure of the braze and/or some defect (inclusion? corrosion and pit?) in the barrel wall.

Douglas Adams, �Wonko the Sane�, The Ultimate Hitchhiker�s Guide to the Galaxy
"I'm a scientist and I know what constitutes proof. But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that."

And since numbers are good, and not dependent on pre-existing expectations or prejudice, a 1907 Hunter Arms engineering drawing specifies 16g chambers as .745" tapering to .732" with a 1/2" forcing cone to a bore of .650", so we can know if there has been any chamber/cone/bore modification IF the left chamber was also worked on.

P.S. Be kind to those moms, and children of moms, who are grieving this day. Many are. And many need both forgiveness and healing.