Sporting Life, Sept. 10, 1904 “Burst Gun Barrels”
https://digital.la84.org/digital/col...id/38180/rec/3
The number of burst gun-barrels which come to the attention of the shooting public is remarkably small, considering the thousands of guns in use throughout the country. The main reason for the comparatively small number of guns burst is the great use of factory-loaded shells, or the hand-loaded of reliable dealers. The day of loading one’s own shells is pretty well passed, therefore, the over-loaded or double-charged cartridge is very seldom found. Very often a burst barrel is blamed on the gunmaker or the shell-maker, but more often on the manufacturer of the powder. Cases are known where a party blowing out a gun-barrel,
using an extra heavy charge of dense powder, blamed it on a bulk powder. A suit for damages was quickly withdrawn after an examination of the gun had been made.
William Welshausen vs. The Charles Parker Company
Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, Decided June 14, 1910
https://www.ravellaw.com/opinions/b6...e0e4fa0830982c
The complaint alleges that the plaintiff purchased of the defendant a gun of its own manufacture, with an express warranty by its agent that the same was sound, of best quality and fit to stand the strain of proper and ordinary use, and that the barrels thereof were of the best Damascus steel. It also alleges negligence on the part of the defendant in manufacturing the gun and putting it on the market, and in allowing it to go into the hands of customers without proper supervision and inspection during and after its manufacture and before it was sold; that the gun was weak, insufficient, badly constructed, and of poor quality of steel, and that because of such defect the left barrel burst when the plaintiff was using it in the ordinary manner and with due care, and injured him.
The plaintiff lost.
1936 testimony by W.A. King, Parker Gun Co. regarding a barrel burst, likely a 20g shell inserted before a 12g
https://books.google.com/books?id=jU...J&pg=PA802&lpg