Out of curiosity, ill ask if those Boss shells were what did the deed?
I know they offer lower pressure loads but in longer lengths still.

No i wasn’t shooting the Boss shells. I guess I didn’t think about it but it has had the chambers opened to 2 3/4 (the blowout was 13.5 inches down. I was shoot a 1oz lead #8 doing 1165 factory Winchester load.

Ironically those are the low pressure Boss shells, 1 oz loaded with fiber wads at 1200 FPS. With everything going on I picked up those Boss shells for next hunting season.

The only other shells I’ve put through the gun where my 7/8 oz lead handloads

I think if the cause of the burst was the chambers having been lengthened the failure would have been at that exact spot - where the barrel wall/cone was too thin to contain the pressure.

13.5" from the breech was more likely the result of a different cause, in my honest opinion.





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Welcome to the PGCA Andrew. It’s a shame about your gun. Go to the Want To Buy sub forum and list whatever you want. Likely someone will have it.

Andrew, can you post pictures of the "blowout"?





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Dean go back one page .

I see what might be construed as a ring bulge...?

I was expecting to see a fracture type of catastrophic failure.

A ring bulge that far from the chamber is most often caused by an obstruction... even the tiniest obstruction or even from a stuck wad from the previous time that tube was fired.





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The barrel has a hole and crack in side towards the rib, literally in the space between the two barrels, you wouldn’t know there is a problem without looking down the barrel. No bulge, no obstruction. I’ve only had the gun 6 weeks and had it out 3 times, never had an obstruction, never had an off sounding shell and I always look down the barrels before inserting shell. My gunsmith has looked at it twice and he doesn’t think it was an obstruction, he said if it was an obstruction it would have blown out the weaker side of the tube, the opposite side. He really thinks it’s a probable a flaw in the metal that finally gave out after 97 years.

He may very well be right.





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FWIW and this is only FWIW: I got a very shootable but field worn 16g VH with 28" barrels for $1800 a few months back. So they're out there if you want a gun for the woods. It is on a #1 frame with 28" barrels and handles just beautifully. Actually, it's just awesome and my "rain gun."