....In short; I believe they were forged from tubes that were welded for shotgun barrels....
....forging a large bore tube down to a smaller caliber can easily be done. The entire subject of forging small bore tubes, including small gauge shotgun tubes, is something that I am keenly interested in....
It is interesting Steve, and I always appreciate your comments.
A point I think worth considering is, if a shotgun tube has been welded and formed to show a correct finished pattern, wouldn't reforging to some smaller diameter distort the pattern.
Also, if the correct pattern is uncovered in the center of the material, to some extent the better rifled barrel makers might have intentionally welded them up differently than a shotgun tube to account for greater wall thickness and appearance. Only thoughts and sorry Doc Drew.
