Barrel wall thickness

[Joe Wood]

If you set .030 as a minimum there are an awful lot of original Parker's you're not going to shoot. I have three which I'm nearly certain haven't been honed which have walls less than that. I too like the thicker walls but not from fear of a burst but rather because I'd prefer to have extra metal for repairs in case of a dent. Of corse I'm speaking of the forward half or third of the barrel. I'm very critical of having acceptable wall thickness in the first 12". "Acceptable" is a subjective call and the intended ammunition for the gun has a huge bearing on the decision. For instance, I shoot two #1 frames that have from .090 to .095 in front of the forcing cones and that's fine because these are very light upland guns. My duck guns have a lot more armor than that around my hands.

Oh, they're all Damascus.

[Bill Murphy]

My Vulcan Steel ten has minimum wall thickness of exactly .100". Talk about a gun that would drive Sherman Bell crazy!