Catastrophic Failure...

[Don Kaas]

:eek: I returned from a week in Argentina duck hunting this morning. The shooting was very good with 10 species taken. On Thursday morning, however, almost 50 years of luck shooting side by sides ran out. I had my 32" #1 frame VHE 16 gauge in the blind. It had been working very well for me the previous 3 days. At first light a flock of 8 gargantilla, the white cheeked pintail came in from the right. My buddy, Tom Rowland on my right took one with his 1912 Fox Sterlingworth 12g "pin gun" and I missed my first shot but killed one going away with my second. Everything seemed normal as I broke the gun to reload, I felt something odd and turned the gun over. "Damned, I popped the bottom rib." Closer examination showed a fully opened 3 inch split in the bottom of the right barrel running from 15" from the breech to 18".:cuss: At first I thought I had gotten something in the muzzle but there was no evidence of that. I was using Obera 27 gram loads of #5s. The only thing I can think of is a cocked wad. Who knows?

[Brian Dudley]

That is too bad Don.
However, It goes to show to all those that still believe that Fluid steel is better than Damascus that it can happen to any gun.

[John Truitt]

Wow. Glad to hear you are ok. Too bad about it happening esp to a gun that can be hard to find (32" 16).
Did you notice any difference in the way the shoot sounded?
Again glad to hear you are ok.


PS could you include a picture of the barrel?

[Richard Flanders]

What a shame Don. Glad your hand didn't take any damage though.

[charlie cleveland]

bad about the gun barrels but they can be replaced...just glad no one hurt and will live to hunt another day... charlie

[Steve Huffman]

What was the wall thickness at the problem area ?

[Angel Cruz]

.....:crying:
.............:crying:... Thank the Big guy you still have your hand!!

[Dean Romig]

Take it as mixed blessings Don.

Any sign of a bulge at all in the area of the split?

[George Lander]

Don: Perhaps Nash Buckingham was watching over you. Guns can be replaced, Hands can't.

Best Regards, George

[charlie cleveland]

we can do a lot of guessing and speculating here but my guess would be that thebase wad came loose and lodged about 2/3 ways down the barrel and when next shell was fired busted barrel...still glad don was not hurt.... charlie

[Justin Julian]

Perhaps a top notch sleeve of the burst barrel would be the best option for bringing that gun back to life.

[E Robert Fabian]

What I want to know is did you keep hunting with the other barrel?

[Don Kaas]

Actually, I had the bird boy call the lodge and they drove out 15 miles to the blind with my custom 30" Winchester M21 20 gauge 3" magnum. I watched my buddy, Tom bang them with his Sterligworth "El Zorro" and retrieved the ducks for him until the gun arrived in about 30 minutes. Even with only 25 grams of #5s, a 20 gauge is adequate for most Argentinian duck shooting.

[Fred Preston]

Don, I had a similar experience a few years ago with a cut barrel VH 12 I bought for $600. Never measured wall thickness. I was using 1&1/2oz mags on released pheasants to "fill in" the pattern of the cylinder bores. The first shot of the day, I failed to bring the bird down and used the left barrel, also failing to stop the bird; but, the report sounded strange. I took the gun down to reload and saw the 5" split in the left barrel starting at the tip of the forend. I looked at my left hand and the finger count came out right. Kirk Merrington sleeved in a couple skeet choked tubes for $1600 and it is now my go to gun for anything except South Dakota pheasants. Also, a little more expensive than I had anticipated when I bought it.

[Justin Julian]

Fred,
Was there a reason why both barrels had to be replaced (sleeved) as opposed to just the one that burst, or was that just a choice you made?

[Kevin McCormack]

I was killing time yesterday, thinking about "all things Meriden" when I decided to Google the "Cherry Street Warehouse Fire." (As TPS pointed out on p. 60, Vol. 1, no mention was made of the Parker Gun Works in the media after reporting the event, one of the biggest fires in Meriden history). At the time, the building was being used as a warehouse by the International Silver Company.

After a few false hits under the sidebars, I came upon this spectacular and frightening photo. Go to the website; www.CtCameriaEye.com and hit the toggle at the top of the page titled "The Fire Service." The run your vertical cursor slide down your screen to about the middle of the page of selected photos until you come to "Meriden CT - International Silver Company - Feb. 26, 1980."

If I have my bearings correct, the people watching the fire are standing on the railroad tracks looking through the fence past what would have been the location of the forge shop, past the engineering shed and are looking at the side wing of the factory where it joins the mainstem of the building. At 50 feet wide and 300 feet long, the mainstem and this wing must have made for quite a sight when they became, as firemen like to report, "fully engaged."

The apartment building just visible to the right is a fair distance behind the gunworks, and apparently sustained no damage. The lone remaining building of the Parker Gun Works stands to the left of this photo field, down along the railroad tracks. What a meager legacy to the wonderful things that went on there!

[Bob Roberts]

this link will get you to the fire service page, then scroll down

http://www.ctcameraeye.com/?page_id=2212

[Fred Preston]

Justin, I asked Kirk if just the left barrel could be replaced as I wouldn't mind the right being cylinder bored. He said it wouldn't work, but he did use the ribs as I had them and the barrels wound up at 25&7/8".

[Don Kaas]

Here are photos of the damaged right barrel:shock:

[Angel Cruz]

Wow... Mr. Kass, did it damage the forend?

[Don Kaas]

No, it was in just front of the fore end. Luckily, I do not "reach" in my shooting style as some do:)

[Angel Cruz]

Man, I'm glad to hear that. I hold mine closer to the hinge pin.

[Pete Lester]

Wow, it appears you were fortunate to not have been hurt. Sorry about your gun. I have got to get into the habit of checking my bores on each reload which is hard to do when crows are coming hard and fast.

[Mills Morrison]

In my trips to South America, I have found there to be a great variation in the strength of the individual shells they produce down there. Some shells don't fire at all and some are unusually powerful. I wonder if this gun was the victim of an overloaded shell? Like the others say, I am glad no one was hurt.

[Don Kaas]

I have been to Argentina (shooting) 10 times, including some rather lengthy sessions of 1500 shells (with Perazzi not Parker) in Cordoba when I was younger and even more foolish, I have never had an issue with Argentinian shells other than that they tend to be a bit dirty. There was no indication whatsoever by sound or recoil that anything was amiss. As I mentioned, I actually killed a bird with the left barrel after the right had blown. Until that point the gun had fired about 350 rounds that week.- a lot more than it had been fired for many years I suspect. Go figure...#191919's time was up. As Ira G. wrote, "In time, the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble. They're only made of clay..."

[Dean Romig]

And a gun is made by man...

[Richard Flanders]

I'd say looking at those photos that if you were a "reacher" Don you might have sustained at the very least a pretty good bruise to your forward hand...

[John Truitt]

Mr. Kaas,
Thank you for sharing. I like the other guys am glad you were not hurt. Again sorry to hear about your gun.
BTW on a lesser note that gun shur had an interesting serial number.

[Pete Lester]

As I go through this thread again I wonder what if the gun in question had been a Damascus or Twist barreled gun. How much of a buzz would there be on here and maybe on the Doublegun BBS about an inexplicable composite barrel failure. Seems to me a fluid steel barrel ruptures without clear reason and it's glad you weren't hurt, too bad about your gun and life goes on with no buzz of fear of fluid steel barrel failure.

[Richard Flanders]

Anyone have access to an industrial xray machine? It would be an interesting experiment to xray as many seemingly sound fluid and composite Parker barrels as possible to see if any had imperfections that might result in failure. Are you out there Sherman????

[Justin Julian]

Fred,
After asking whether just the damaged barrel on a double could be sleeved, it occured to me that with two barrels of differing steel composition on the same gun, they would probably not reblue to the same color, and that wouldn't look very good.