larry: i have some experience with briley tube sets in older guns; mostly damascus or twist steel barrelled guns where the pitting was too deep, or the barrel walls were too thin for me or my gunsmith to feel that it would be safe to shoot with any ammo, regardless of pressure.
tubes can be custom fit to a gun or just slipped in as brush buster described above. slip fit or so called universal tube sets seems to work ok for newer guns where the barrel specs are consistent with saami specs, which were adopted by domestic firearms manufacturers in the mid '20's. as buster also indicated, these relatively lose fit tubes will some times ride up when extracting fired shells. the extractor or ejector rod of the gun is supposed to just pull up the tube extractor and the shell. sometimes though, the tube comes up as well. a fix for this problem is to paint the exterior of the tube in the forcing cone area with your wife or girl friend's least favorite nail polish. this glues the tube to the barrel, just enough to keep the tube from riding up and yet making it possible for you to remove the tube if necessary. removing tubes is not recommended, as i have noticed they do seem to fire form to the barrel.
now custom fit tubes are a different matter. when properly installed they are a much tighter fit. no nail polish required here. however, the barrels usually have to be altered in two areas. the chambers have to be lengthened to 2 3/4 inches and the chokes have to opened to a couple of thousands larger than the od of the tube, so the tubes can be hammered in for a snug fit. these alterations should not cause a problem, as once the tubes are installed, there is no common reason to remove them.
as you indicate, low press shells are always a good idea for older guns, in order to preserve the old, brittle and often oil soaked wood.
hope this helps. ed
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