1897 Barrel Safe to Shoot?

[tempdrummer]

I have a 1908 Winchester 1897 take down 12ga. Its got a 20" barrel. Over the (many) years of use, its worn a nice groove into the barrel from the take down pin/barrel band. The groove is approx 5" from the tip of the barrel.

I have shot it, and it works great.

What do you guys say? good to go still?

[Asphodel]

drummer,

If that barrel were mine, I'd not hesitate to fire it. I would, however, inspect the action closely, to verify good lockup.

I would, just as a matter of prudence with a century-old gun, use only relatively light loads. such as modern 'trap loads'.

The standard 12ga. rounds which were available from Winchester and other ammunition manufacturers when that gun was new were, according to the old catalogues, significantly less powerful loadings than were the later 'Super-X' and similar high performance hunting loads.

cheers

Carla

[pullnshoot25]

Bring that beast to bear and kill some pigeons!

[Brd_Hntr]

Ouch. Those look deep. I would have a gunsmith check that before I fired it. Why take a chance on it?

[Bigdaa]

Ouch. Those look deep. I would have a gunsmith check that before I fired it. Why take a chance on it?

I would need to inspect the whole gun and not just the inflicted area. Having said that, I'm +1 with Brd-Hntr.

[TMC]

At 5" from the muzzle it won't be an issue. The highest pressure is at the chamber, by the muzzle the pressure has lowered considerably and will not cause the barrel damage.

The one area with the large depression may, in time, develop a pin hole but that is no more a danger than the ported barrel on my 525. A good smith could weld that up and smooth is out.

[tempdrummer]

Thanks for the help and opinions everyone. It's too much fun to not fire but better safe than sorry.

How would I inspect the action? What would I look for? Maybe that's something gunsmith needs to do?

[TRAP55]

tempdrummer, if that's an original 20" bbl, it should be cyl bore. I can't see how the takedown pin would have done that.
If were me, I wouldn't shoot it. Best case it will develop a hole there and blow out. Worse case is a catastrophic separation.
If that barrel was choked, it would have let go already.

http://www.corsonsbarrels.com/

[tempdrummer]

It's actually a cut down barrel. God knows when it was cut down. The barrel is marked full.

[tempdrummer]

Also I believe it's the barrel band that made that not the takedown pin.

When the gun is assembled that groove is covered by the barrel band. Hence why I didn't see it when I bought it. Doh!

[metalliman545]

Should be fine, mines a 1918 fired 25 rounds of 00buckshot through it and about 100 federal "max dram" bird shot with noooooo problem. Though I do need to clean the ejector a lil more. If I rack too fast to eject the round slides all the way back and gets stuck in the ejection port. Do it slow ejects fine. When loading it if I do it too fast it'll kick the round out. Again, I do it slow and it feeds properly.