Barrel Analysis

[B. Dudley]

This goes along with the topic of this thread as well as another article in the Parker Pages a few issues ago about barrel steels in Parker barrels.

I just came into this set of 2 frame 12g barrels that are NOS, unchambered and 32" in length. No serial number length. They have bottom ribs, loop, spacers and keels in place, but no top rib installed yet. The barrel flat has the blank circle on it as discussed in that PP article. Letter was stamped in on e the grade of gun was determined.

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These barrels are going to go on a check-hook lifter frame I have to upgrade into an A or AA grade.

[Drew Hause]

Dean was kind enough to send me the Summer Parker Pages with Dave's Composition Analysis study. It is probably important to date the barrels as composition very likely changed following the advancements during and after WWI. It can be said with some degree of confidence that at least turn-of-the-century Hunter Arms rough forged fluid steel tubes were from a different Belgian source.

Any misunderstanding as to the Belgian source of pre-WWI tubes should be resolved by the following:
Hearings, Vol. 14, United States 60th Congress 2nd Session, November, 1908.
We further request that shotguns barrels in single tubes forged rough bored…be continued on the free list as at present, because their manufacture or production can not be economically undertaken in this country.
Hunters Arms co., Fulton, N.Y., Ithaca Gun Co., Ithaca N.Y., Parker Bros., Meriden, Conn., Lefever Arms Co., Syracuse, N.Y., J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass., N.R. Davis & Son, Assonet, Mass., Baker Gun & Forging Co., Batavia, N.Y.

A single 1898 L.C. Smith Armour Steel tube was evaluated by optical emission spectroscopy (OES): Carbon content 0.47 weight percent is comparable to AISI 1045 Plain Carbon Steel, but with slightly higher sulfur (.075) and phosphorus (.112) content similar to AISI 1211 rephosphorized and resulfurized steel.

For comparison, a Russian source reported Krupp Fluss Stahl as having:
0.45% Carbon
Up to 0.035% Phosphorus
Up to 0.035% Sulphur

Published tensile strength for 1045 is 80,000 – 90,000 psi.
Published tensile strength for 1018 Low Carbon (Mild) Steel is 64,000 psi.
Measured tensile strength of this Armour sample was 101,000 psi.
Anxious to see Eldon's tensile strength results of the samples in the future.

I'm still hoping to evaluate samples of the other Hunter Arms named steels, and also the Armory Steel used by Meriden Fire Arms and Crescent, and will report back.