60947 Fires it's last shot

[J. A. EARLY]

While some may say it is worthless in the case of an accident, I use a leather hand guard on all of my doubles. I use a 12 gauge guard on my 10s. It may never help, but one never knows how much the leather and spring steel inside it may go towards saving a hand or fingers, plus it saves the bluing and hot hands in September shooting at doves. Does not bother the sight plane for me. Never know it is there.

[B. Dudley]

If I'm not mistaken, the Brits consider .018" to be acceptable minimum for proofing, right? Or for shooting?

[Dennis]

Greg and John,

I sure won't give you any flak for your thoughts on reloading. I will tell you though I have reloaded thousands of cartridges both rifle and pistol and quite a few shotshells. I have never had any problems with reloads of my own or my brother's making. The problems we have had with cartridges and shotshells have ALL been with factory ammunition. No guns blown up but faulty primers, squib loads, loads with no primer in the case on one occasion. Each of us makes their own choice of whether to reload or not. For my and my brother's short 10 guns reloading is the only way to make a shooter out of a piece of steel and wood.

Dennis

[Craig Larter]

I reload and have experienced two problems in 40+ years that caused squib loads. One involved claybuster wads that were poorly molded, the base was not fully formed and it caused the gas to escape causing a squib. The second issue was my fault I picked up shells that were damp and reloaded them before they were dry--causing squibs.
Last weekend shooting sporting clays one of my friends was shooting RST's and experienced two squibs and another friend discovered a RST 2 1/2" 12ga shell there the crimp had opened about half open, the shell was discarded but he shot the rest of the box with no issues. A third friend was shooting Wally World Winchester promo loads and the plastic tube was not properly inserted into the base, a piece of the tube was actually on the outside of the case rim (this not the first time I have seen this defect). So problems happen with both factory shells and reloads. I think the best advise is to inspect shells before chambering them and inspect your barrels for a blockage after every shot----wear proper safety glasses and a shooting glove.

[Drew Hause]

Brian: regarding British proof and MWT. There is no minimum below which the proof house will refuse to prove the barrels. They do notify the owner if they survive proving with less than .020". And BTW if pitted, the barrels must be honed prior to proving.

See
http://parkerguns.org/pages/faq/BarrelThickness.htm
and
http://docs.google.com/a/damascuskno...hIiY62Hx4/edit

[David Yeatts]

Thank you all. Your opinions and information have been a great help to me in understanding what happened and how to improve my reloading. I do tend to run hulls into the ground but Chromax's photo of the federal hull got me to cut down some of my older hulls. While all have base wads those where in very bad repair and went into the trash. I suspect the shell that blew had a crack in the hull and let go in the area of the barrel flaw. Each hull is inspected after shooting and before reloading. Anyway I pulled out all my 10's and checked them again under a very strong light and really took my time, found 16 with cracks wad problems or pin holds. As much shooting as I do all factory is not an option but thanks to your help and suggestions I do it smarter.
If there is another group as well informed and more willing share information I have not met them. Proud to be a PGCA member and look forward to seeing a lot of you at the Southern and yes the hammer 10 will be there.
Dave