Having heard various stories about thinned walled "reworked" guns I decided to purchase a barrel thickness guage. Bought the one from Brownells, and with a little practice quite satisfied.
In any event it has yielded some interesting data I thought I would share. For ease I will leave the 0 off the front of the numbers. I have measured starting from muzzle then at 4, 8, 12, 16" back. I then measured starting at the chamber - 4" in, then 8, 12, 16
First gun - a 12ga. GH w/28" Damascus - 2 3/4" chambers (I was surprised by that). IC & M -This gun was in very good condition metal wise, stock badly abused, now repaired.
L - 50, 35, 41, 40, 42
R - 45, 42, 36, 35, 36 , interesting it seems the tighter choke barrel (L) is bored tighter all the way through.
CL - 110, 58, 40
R - 113, 56, 38
Second gun - a 12ga. VH w/30" fluid steel - 2 7/8" chambers. M & F/M - This gun was a train wreck, with a crack in the left barrel about 7" back from the muzzle at a large dent. Major repair on it, with many new action parts, sear springs, etc. Restock. A family heirloom, 3 generations. The bores had been "polished" so I was actually concerned. But there is still much metal left.
L - 52, 36, 35, 33, 29 - at the location of the repaired crack it was 23
R - 48, 41, 33, 33, 32
CL - 104, 59, 40
R - 110, 66, 40
Third gun - 16ga. VH w/28" fluid steel- 2 1/2" chambers. IC & M. A recent aqquisition, and the barrels look like they have been polished, but not abused.
L - 35, 28, 28, 30, 30
R - 25, 30, 27, 30, 32
CL - 92, 43, 30, 28
R - 108, 49, 39, 30
So what can we might conclude - in another string on the site, someone was referencing 20 thou as a suggested minimum. That would suggest a gun that has had a lot of bore work, or outside polishing or both. Even with the different barrel make up and spread of age of the first two guns, the wall thickness hasn't changed much. I should have mentioned they both were size 2 frames. With the 16ga. having 2 1/2" chambers, is there enough metal ahead of the chambers to lengthen them to 2 3/4". Further study is in order on that one I think.
Hope this hasn't been too dry, but nothing like a little actual measurement when considering a subject like this.
