The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

[J. A. EARLY]

My two cents is this was shot bridging, since I see they were number 3s. The tungsten matrix is hard; tungsten by definition is harder than steel even in the matrix blend they make. And with a heavy wad with thick walls, when going down through the .032 choke there was no give and no shot deformation as with lead. The shot in the column formed a solid block and the walls like Jerico came tumbling down under the stress. With 4s, you may have gotten by, with 6s probably 99.9% of the time. With 3s or larger, disaster. With a more open choke, you probably get by. Remember with steel or harder shot, an IC shoots Mod., a Mod. shoots Full, and a Full shoots Extra Full and a thin barrel lets go.

Remember if you cut this back two inches, you are probably in the very thinnest part of the barrels, and there may not be enough metal to install chokes. so measure or have them measured to see how thin they will be where they will be cut. I think having the left side retubed is going to be the best bet, by somebody like Kirk Merrington.