Is this to thin to be safe?

[Kevin McCormack]

Cannot help but violently agree with what Frank ("Cold Spring") just posted. I consigned a beautiful CE Grade A.H. Fox 16 ga. light upland bird gun (26" #4 wt. barrels) to the last G&D auction in September that was originally chambered for 2 1/2" shells and had been opened up to 2 3/4" chambers and so marked on the barrel flats. I purchased the gun that way before the "Hosford gauge era" and have no idea who did the work.

Accurate readings using Hosford gauges showed the right barrel wall thickness at the forcing cone well withing acceptable limit but the left barrel borderline at the same distance. The pre-auction estimate on the gun was $7500-$12,500, but when the lot came up, no one would go for the minimum of $3250 (the required 1/2 lower bid estimate to open).

This tells me that savvy and meticulous people who want these guns are not willing to 'push the envelope' with guns of this configuration in hopes that the inevitable never occurs. And there is no guarantee that some nimrod will stick to lowest-RST ammo use and not cram a Fiocchi 1 1/8 oz. "Golden Pheasant" load into it someday.

My personal theory is that whoever opened the chambers used a motorized tool, not a hand reamer. I have watched enough chamber hand reaming done the right way; e.g. a few turns of the tool then careful measurement before continuing.

Net result is that now a beautiful and desirable Fox will be sold at salvage to someone skilled and talented enough to rebarrel it. Upside is that one very viable candidate has expressed an interest.