Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Franzen
I would love to find one of those. I've heard there were only 5 made that way. One was owned by a celeb ( I can't remember his name, but he was featured hunting with it on some show).
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I know of four Damascus barreled 97's. The two featured here, another a collector friend ran across & the one I just sent off to Bachelders for Brad to look over. I'm sure there are many more, but how many is anyones guess, it was an expensive upgrade for a technology that was on the way out at the time.
Charley,
After re-reading the text. Winchester said they proofed the barrels with 9 1/2 drams & the assembled gun at 4 1/2 drams. I assume they had some sort of test fixture they mounted just the barrels in and probably loaded the barrel full of powder & shot for the test charge. Just my guess !!