As Bruce stated welding might be the easiest and simplest solution. I owned a gun that was repaired this way and helped a few of our members out by taking their barrels to the company that did the work. After the weld was polished out Dale Edmonds refinished the barrels and the repair was undetectable.

Thanks Bruce and Mike,

I am definitely going to see if welding can be done with these barrels.

I sent a set of 1877 twist barrels to Brad several years ago for refinishing. They failed his pressure test with a hole from a dent repair in the muzzle third of the barrels. I had no clue it was there as I had not shot the gun yet. He had it welded up and refinished them. They look and shoot great. You would never find the spot if you did not know exactly where to look.

So IMO it is definitely possible with the right smith, depending on the details of the issue and where the damage is.

Yes, there was a lot of talk about trying to find another set of barrels , monoblocking, sleeving , all sorts of difficult, costly and time consuming solutions. People have been welding small cracks and holes in barrels for years with good results. Of course the sensible thing to do would be to run some heavy loads through it after the repair but none of the barrels that I know of that have been competently welded have failed.

I once posted here a photo of a Parker barrel that had about a 3/4” square area cut out and a patch welded in . It was old , maybe since the 1920’s or 30’s. The bluing was mostly worn from the patch area from use .

IMO repair of through cracks in the proximal 1/3 of a pattern welded barrel is an entirely different issue than the distal 1/3, where pressure is < 1000 psi, and depending on the load may be < 500 psi.

IF the barrels are welded in the proximal 1/3 I would strongly urge formal proof testing. Some options:

H.P. White Laboratory, Inc. in Maryland and Cortland, New York. They will test at 1 and 1/2 times the pressure of your intended load if asked to do so.
www.hpwhite.com

Entropy Engineering Corporation
http://www.entropyec.com/

Chesapeake Testing
http://chesapeaketesting.com/service...blast-testing/

Dayton T. Brown
http://www.dtbtest.com/Default.aspx

Please let us know if you proceed and how it works out.

I would wager a guess that the gun has been shot more than a few times after the crack showed up. Just a guess.

Brian, the test I give a gun before I can get to my wall thickness gauge is "Did it blow up in the last fifty years use of high brass Super-X shells?" The answer is always, NO.

So can you , me or Bubba down the road. You will need a tire, rope to tie the gun to the tire and string to tie to the trigger. Cost is minimal .

I will keep everyone posted on the progress of this gun. A PGCA member already reached out to me they think they might have a set of barrels that would work, which I am excited about. I do want to attempt to repair the original barrels as well.

I have a few leads, but who would you recommend to weld(and pressure test) the barrels?

Thanks,
Jay

I was reunited with this Parker today after 6 years and I am really glad I decided to take on this project. It is such a nice gun and I am cautiously optimistic I can get the barrels fixed and I am also hoping to find another set of barrels to try just in case.

While there were a lot of pictures of this gun, you can really see how great it is in natural light. I can't tell you how happy I am to have this back!