After all their testing they believe it is a gouge caused by something hitting the barrel. There was no evidence of the weld seam separating. The barrel thickness at that spot is 60 thousandths. Here's how the barrels measured in thickness starting at the breech:
right barrel left barrel
.197 .194
6"- .099 .107
12"-.064 .054
18"-.046 .039
24"-.041 .039
32"-.049 .050
That "gouge is about 13'' from the breech.
They referred me to a guy that tig welds for Aerospace industry if I want to do a "Cosmetic" repair. They wouldn't say whether or not it was definately ok to shoot but the Xray tech said he would do the first test firing if I allowed him to.
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