The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

[todd allen]

Kirk Merrington can probably replace the damaged barrel. Might end up being a partially Italian gun when done..

[B. Dudley]

21s are no less likely to fail than any other quality double.

[GH-16]

Originally Posted by Jerry Harlow

My two cents is this was shot bridging, since I see they were number 3s. The tungsten matrix is hard; tungsten by definition is harder than steel even in the matrix blend they make. And with a heavy wad with thick walls, when going down through the .032 choke there was no give and no shot deformation as with lead. The shot in the column formed a solid block and the walls like Jerico came tumbling down under the stress. With 4s, you may have gotten by, with 6s probably 99.9% of the time. With 3s or larger, disaster. With a more open choke, you probably get by. Remember with steel or harder shot, an IC shoots Mod., a Mod. shoots Full, and a Full shoots Extra Full and a thin barrel lets go.

Remember if you cut this back two inches, you are probably in the very thinnest part of the barrels, and there may not be enough metal to install chokes. so measure or have them measured to see how thin they will be where they will be cut. I think having the left side retubed is going to be the best bet, by somebody like Kirk Merrington.

This is the best advice offered so far! Send the barrels to Kirk to find out what your options are and follow his advice. It's not going to be cheap, but you will be saving a classic gun.

If it were my gun I would see if Kirk could just sleeve the one damaged barrel back to the original 32" length. I have a friend that had Kirk replace/sleeve just one barrel on a model-21 and it came out wonderful, you really had to look & know what you were looking for to detect that the one barrel had been replaced.

You'll probably never know exactly what caused the blow-up, but IMO; the first step is to never shoot any of those shells again to be on the safe side. Secondly; Get in the habit of looking down the barrels before you drop in a new round.

[Rick Roemer]

Definitely. Already talked to Kirk this morning. What a nice and knowledgeable guy. Getting information like this from all of the PGCA forum folks is THE reason for me being a member. Thank you PGCA. Hopefully my situation will cause all to be extra cautious. Looking down the barrels - for sure. These shells are going up for sale - or to the garbage. Thanks again.

[Larry the Gun Guy]

I would send some pictures to Galazans, they are the factory. Galazans will work on 21s only and they can probably do the replacement barrel factory new.
They do exceptional work on 21s, cosmetically as well as mechanically. No disrespect to these other outstanding gunsmiths, but why would you go to anyone but the factory.

[J. A. EARLY]

Originally Posted by Rick Roemer

These shells are going up for sale - or to the garbage.

Your Benelli SBE that you mention will eat those shells as if they were target loads.

[Curtis Jennings]

Oh my, that really ruined what should have been a great day. I do not think that there was anything in the barrel, those Win Long beard XR shells are a solid slug of resin with a center fill of #4 lead shot, plus a plastic wad. They are "engineered" to break up when reaching the choke. Unfortunately in this case your barrel gave way before the resin. The way the end of the barrel is blown so wide open is what I remember seeing back in the beginning of steel shot. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Bill Murphy]

Why would you throw the shells in the garbage when the payload may have turned into an oversized solid mass that could have destroyed your gun? Oh, well, we tried.

[Craig Larter]

I have always felt shoot a load for which your gun was designed. Parker 2 frames and AH Fox 12 ga guns 1 1/8oz , Super Foxes and 3 frame Parker 12ga 1 1/4 oz., Model 12 3 inch duck 1 5/8oz.
The best thing that has improved my scores the last few years are 3/4 oz 12ga reloads at less than 6000psi. No recoil
I also agree the solid slugs hitting the choke split the barrel, sad I hope it turns out well.

[Phil Yearout]

Originally Posted by Rick Roemer

...or to the garbage.

Better hope they don't burn garbage at the city dump !