the key factors regarding the safe shooting of old guns is barrel wall thickness and ammo pressure.
any good double gun smith should have the tools to measure barrel wall thicknesses and based upon his experience, be able to determine the safety potential of a particular gun.
several sources are now making low pressure smokeless loads in the 6000 psi range, which roughly duplicates the pressure of black powder field loads. two of the most popular are rst and polywad.
as for value, guns with barrels other than fluid steel are generally worth less than guns with fluid steel barrels, all other factors being the same.
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