Wondering ?????

[GH-16]

After thinking about this some more. I've reminded myself of a personal experience I had with a CE grade Fox with 30" cromox fluid steel barrels.

I bought this gun when I was fairly new to older doubles and was still in the make the gun the way I want it to be phase. I didn't like the full & fuller chokes it came out of Philly with, so I sent it out to a well known double gunsmith to have them opened. I stressed that I didn't want them opened if the wall thickness didn't allow the procedure to be done. He supposedly measured them & we agreed to have him do the deed. When I got the gun back I took it out on a hunting trip in eastern Colorado. I forget the exact load I was shooting but they were a typical 6 shot pheasant load. "not one of these high power pheasant loads available today. A bird got up and I missed on the first shot, so I followed up with the second barrel.

My buddy that was with me immediately asked what I was shooting because it sounded funny. I started looking the gun over & found that both barrels had bulged at the lead to the choke tapers. Yes both barrels were bulged in the exact same spot shooting the same ammo! These shots were the first shells fired in the gun after the chokes were opened. Yep it only took one shot per barrel to bulge them.

I sent the gun back to the gunsmith and he immediately took the position that I was shooting too hot a load for the gun and wouldn't stand by his work. When I got the barrels back I had them measured for wall thickness. What we found was the walls at the start of the choke tapers were down to .010" where the bulges started. I've always felt that if I hadn't had the chokes opened that nice set of Fox barrel would still be bringing game to the table today.

I know it's a long story, but one I feel relevant to the theory of lengthened chambers. Live & learn !