While we are at it
The pseudonymous Zircon posted Contribute Junk To Advance Barrel Strength Knowledge on two public internet forums in 2005 requesting vintage barrels for composition and strength testing. By 2006 he had accumulated almost 40 samples (some contributed by PeteM), both Fluid Steel and Pattern Welded. Part of the collection included the Damascus barrels from the Parker GH and the Vulcan Steel barrels from the Parker VH that had been the subjects of destructive testing by Sherman Bell, with the technical support of Tom Armbrust, published in
The Double Gun Journal Vol. 10, Issue 4, Winter, 1999, Finding Out For Myself Part II and Vol. 16, Issue 2, Summer 2005, Finding Out For Myself Part IX.
My last communication with Zircon was May, 2015 when he indicated that he was working on an article for submission to DGJ.
The fate of those 40 barrel samples is unknown.
