I read an interesting post some weeks back that was actually quite old. The fellow who posted had experienced a similar type failure after shooting a shell that he said had been rolling around in his vehicle for some period of time. He speculated that the gun powder had indeed become very fine powder from the action of rolling around in his vehicle, which in turn changed the way the powder had detonated. Unrelated to this situation, but the thought prompted me to gather up all of the loose shotgun shells in my truck for disposal.
Buchsemann, can you explain how these fatigue fractures would have occurred? Would one possible cause be the use of high pressure loads? The barrels might not have failed catastrophically at the time of use, but instead formed tiny cracks which then accepted moisture, leading to rust?
Do we all need to get out the microscope to take a closer look at our barrels?
