Remington.....

[Paul Harm]

Far as I know they were the decarbonized barrels. Believe the rifle barrels were the same. Remington developed rifle barrels using a rolling mill - before that everyone lap welded a barrel the entire length. This was very weak compared to a Damascus barrel with short welds going around the barrel. A sales pitch was that the barrels could be bent in half without breaking. They started with a 2" diameter by 9" long round stock with a hole drilled down the center. It would then be stretched out with the mill. No welds. They sold rifle barrels world wide. When a lot of wars ended they had to do something with employees and equipment. They hired a lot of shotgun gunsmiths from stateside and overseas and in 1873 went into producing shotguns.

[Roundsworth]

John, I spent a coupla hours searching the Remington site, to no avail. Paul, thanks for the info. I eventually found an old advertisement stating the guns had decarbonized barrels. Thank you both. Cheers!

[Drew Hause]

Remington called their Bessemer steel 'decarbonized', as did Parker Bros. briefly until Remington took offense and changed the name to Plain Steel. Check out p. 503 & 504 of "The Parker Story"

1872 catalog



For your interest, tensile strength testing:
A sample of Twist and Damascus - 54,000 psi
Bessemer, Plain, or Remington Decarbonized Steel: Henry Bessemer initially claimed a tensile strength of 40 tons/89,600 psi but published numbers range from 55,000 to 70,000 psi, with an average of 63,000 psi
AISI 1018 Low Carbon (Mild) Steel: 64,000 psi
Whitworth's Fluid Compressed Steel: 66,000 - 67,200 psi
AISI 1140 Carbon Steel: 85,000 psi
AISI 4140 Chrome-Molybdenum Steel: 95,000 - 100,000 psi
Remington Ordnance Steel, introduced in 1897 for the 1894 Hammerless Double: 110,000 psi

This of course does not imply that your gun is safe to shoot.