belgium 10ga

[wayne goerres]

Thanks for the info theodore.Thats half the cost to the local gunsmith here. He must have thought I was going to buy him a new reamer.

[BRDHNTR]

$40 per barrel is a good price. I paid $100 for my Ithaca barrel chambers to be lengthened and thought that a fair price since I had been quoted up to $200 by a number of smiths'. And the Ithaca was done by a retired Master Gunsmith from Ithaca.

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Hi Wayne,

It is advisable to send your Belgium made 10 gauge to Mark Beasland who specializes in SxS shotguns. Mark will measure the barrel wall thickness and make sure that there will be enought barrel wall remaining to be safe IF he were to lengthen the chambers.

I shoot a lot of Parker and LC Smith 10 gauges but I know that these makers used the highest quality Damascus tubes for their barrels. For an old Belgium gun I would have not have the same regard toward the safety of the gun, regardless of any 100+ year old proof marks! It would be best to err on the side of safety for this one. Send it to Mark's Born Again Bird Guns.

Respectfully,
Mark

[wayne goerres]

Thanks fellows. I actually bought this old gun to try my hand at recoloring the barrels. didn,t want to experiment on my parkers. As for the safty of these barrels the barrels are clean with only a very small amount of light pitting. The barrel wall thickness at the muzzle is in excess of .060. this is a 10 Lb plus gun. I would not have any fears in a BP load or a light smokeless load. The gun has a double bite and it looks like who ever made this gun knew what they were doing.