Shooting them?

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by John Campbell

I hesitate to point this out, but a Manson Wall Thickness gauge is $110 at Brownells (about the price of a flat of cartridges). It comes with instructions. Anyone who seriously collects old double guns out to have one of their own. And use it.

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...prod20463.aspx

a simple and inexpensive tool kit (that will more than pay for itself the first time it saves you from a bad purchase)

the wood case came out of a antique/junk shop for a couple dollars and took a couple hours to refit - closed its roughly 7 x 24 inches so it doesn't take up much room in the truck

[78CJ]

Originally Posted by John Campbell

I hesitate to point this out, but a Manson Wall Thickness gauge is $110 at Brownells (about the price of a flat of cartridges). It comes with instructions. Anyone who seriously collects old double guns ought to have one of their own. And use it.

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...prod20463.aspx

I just looked at that yesterday, they were recently out of stock. I'll probably pick one up because I enjoy learning and finding things out for myself. I could couple my measurements with a hands on visual inspection by someone familiar with Damascus.

[Bruce Day]

Seven pounds, 28” , open chokes, makes a great field gun and these Remington STS’s make fine quail loads.

[Richard Flanders]

Those are great field loads for any old gun Bruce. I have several cases in stock.

[Gerald McPherson]

I agree. I would barely feel that load and I doubt my DH Damascus 28 inch 8 and 24 thou wood either.

[Steve McCarty]

I own a damascus GH made in 1896 that I posted pictures of here several years ago and discussed it with the experts. It had a broken part and looked as if it had sat in a closet for most of a hundred years. The rest of the gun was in good shape with shiny bores, but little color. I had the gun repaired and inspected by a smith who advertised being expert on old doubles. I then read everything that Sherman Bell wrote in Double Gun. I shot a couple boxes of RST thru it. Great! My issue is that it is choked full and full and I'm a skeet/clays shooter. I am never going to shoot ducks with this gun. I've been shooting old Fox and Ithaca doubles, but I'd like to shoot my Parker GH. Would it destroy it's value to open the left barrel to IC? The gun is not a prestine Parker, very little original color, but no cracks and great bores. What's a guy to do?

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by Ronald Scott

Question on proofing: When barrels are proofed, they fire "proof loads" through them. From what I have read a proof load is equivalent to twice the pressure of a "normal" load. Am I correct? And do they only fire one of these proof loads or do they fire multiple proof loads through the barrel being tested? What do they look for? I assume they measure the barrel to see if the chamber expanded ... do they have some other way to know if the barrel is safe? It can't be that they just shoot it and see if the barrel blows up -- I hope it's more scientific than that! That's why I don't think tying the gun down to a tire and pulling the trigger with a long string really tells you anything. I'd like to understand more about this topic -- especially what effect repeated firing has on the barrel. Which is a better test? One heavy proof load or multiple firings of heavy loads. How do we know that our guns are not getting weaker and weaker the more we shoot?

Sherman Bell did wonderful work in this arena. He shot Remington proof loads in many guns testing Damascus barrels and comparing them to fluid steel tubes. His Proof loads were 18,000 PSI, most standard modern loads are around 8,000. Interestingly most of his damascus barrels held up well, even an old LC Smith that he honed paper thin and then shot several proof loads thru it. I have never met a gunsmith who will state that any barrel is safe to shoot, not wanting the liability, but several have said that they looked okay to them.

[Dean Romig]

Try spreader loads.





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[Ron Scott]

Originally Posted by Steve McCarty

. Would it destroy it's value to open the left barrel to IC? The gun is not a prestine Parker, very little original color, but no cracks and great bores. What's a guy to do?

I can’t see how it would “destroy its value” by opening the right barrel to IC. I have a 16 gauge Damascus GH that is bored IC & Full and love hunting with it. I think that combination of chokes is very useful. On a recent quail hunt I used a 20 gauge choked IC and Full — shot a lot of birds and that full choke barrel came in very handy at times.

You might want to pattern the gun on paper before changing anything though — you might be surprised how open a full choke can be. Not all full chokes are created equal. Dean’s suggestion to use spreader loads is also a good idea as long as you plan on buying shells anyway. I reload and don’t like the additional step but that’s just me.

[Bill Murphy]

Using PC Post spreader wads in a loader that has a hollow wad seater (like a PW) does not require an extra step in loading. Just replace your regular wad with the PC Post, no fuss, no muss.