If I were faced with shooting a bulged barrel my concern would be in the stress created against the constriction of the far end of the bulge. the ejecta is naturally going to want to fill the area of the bulge but then it needs to reconform to the parallel barrel walls beyond the bulge. I would have no qualms at all with shooting barrels with a properly repaired bulge providing the wall thickness isn't compromised.

The other option is to send it to have a chamber liner put in. Its about 6 to 8 inches. (permanently fixed in) They correct the bulge issue cosmetically and the liner addresses the stress.
Contact Briley in Texas. Ask to talk to Steve Power.

Sounds like a great gun worth the trouble to get her fixed.

Good luck let us know how it turns out.

John

In my own quest for a repair on the old Trojan bulge. I talked to several gunsmiths and was on a couple of online forums including this one. I found that several gunsmiths just wont do bulges and some folks say aw just shoot it the way it is and others think any bulge is inherently unsafe. I am certain that where the bulge is and the level of severity is very important but ultimately I decided there isnt much science or consensus on the problem or the solution. maybe someone needs to do some tests on bulged guns like the guy did for damascus barrels.

Murphy has given a good direction, send the old 32" girl to Keith Kearcher and have him look it over, he will give you straight-up answers on the possibilities of repair...

Best, CSL

Bill,

If you'd seen the horror story work done on a gun of mine by Kearcher you'd stop recommending him.


Larry,

Go with Merrington in Texas, he'll charge a little more than Bill's boy Keith but you get what you pay for. I went bargain basement with Kearcher one time and had to have all the work corrected by another smith, it was truly something anybody calling themself a gunsmith should have been ashamed of.


Destry

Thanks for the other side of the story, Destry. All information is meant to be put into a pipe and smoked. By the way, tell us about your latest "hunting" adventure, which I understand is quite the adventure. We haven't heard from you for a while.

There was no adventure.

We got within 45 minutes of Buenos Aires, they closed the airport due to volcanic ash, we got diverted to Santiago Chile, spent three days there waiting, never got anywhere, finally gave up and came home.

I should have been hunting today and coming home tomorrow, instead I'm at work. Such is life.....


Destry

Ouch!!... Hope you're able to get your money back.

Outfitters don't give refunds, it's a universal truth. All the gnashing of teeth or suggestions of what they "should" do won't help so lets not get off on that tangent please. I'm a big boy and I can handle the loss, you play in that field and occasionally you're gonna get tackled.

Destry

Doubble ouch!! Too bad Destry. Like a lot of the other guys, I was waiting for the stories.