Bulge question
The left barrel of my 16 ga GH (Damascus) from 1897 has what appears to be an old bulge repair. There are quite a few hammer marks in a 1" section of barrel running from 2" to 3" from the breech face. They are hard to see but you can feel them when you run your fingers along the side of the barrel.
There are no cracks, the ribs and bores are fine. Barrel wall thickness in front of the chambers is .078-.067 and the thinnest point up near the muzzle is .029 so I feel confident shooting the gun with low pressure loads.
What would cause a bulge to happen near the breech? Would this have been caused by too heavy a load? Thanks, Garth
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