mr. petty
first of all let me state that what we did here with the h & r was not meant to prove anything. we have been skeptical about reloads being the cause of catastrophic failures in shotguns and were just trying to shed some light on that issue.
we did try every recipe for dangerous reloads that people gave us and the h & r held each time. it did get loose and is off the face but still shootable and we use it from time to time for some more tests. it was a new gun when we started.
we were unable to develop pressures much over 20,000 psi with reloads. that is well within the range of sammi proof load pressures. the highest pressures were with 2 charges of powder and 1 charge of shot. (that will work with the right wad, powder, and case combination and the pressures were slightly under 20k)
it is my humble opinion that reloads are not the cause of most catastrophic shotgun failures. barrel obstuctions immediately in front of the chamber would have to be solid as well to cause failures of the type described recently on ts.com. we tried at least 10 20 ga. live rounds in front of the chamber and they just shoot out with out going off. obstructions farther down the barrel can cause barrel ruptures. however, we tried base wads that we manually removed from winchester shells and it just shot them out as well. they could cause ruptures in thin barrels however and i would be cautious about them.
as i have stated many times, do not try overloads in your shotgun. i think that the h & r is no more or no less "strong" that most trap shotguns but conditions vary and it is dangerous business to try overloads.
i think the cause of most catastrophic failues is a high velocity gas leak. what allows that to happen is always the hard thing to figure out. i think in most cases, it comes from a stress crack that develops from many rounds being fired through the gun.
bruce bowen www.bbguns.net
first of all let me state that what we did here with the h & r was not meant to prove anything. we have been skeptical about reloads being the cause of catastrophic failures in shotguns and were just trying to shed some light on that issue.
we did try every recipe for dangerous reloads that people gave us and the h & r held each time. it did get loose and is off the face but still shootable and we use it from time to time for some more tests. it was a new gun when we started.
we were unable to develop pressures much over 20,000 psi with reloads. that is well within the range of sammi proof load pressures. the highest pressures were with 2 charges of powder and 1 charge of shot. (that will work with the right wad, powder, and case combination and the pressures were slightly under 20k)
it is my humble opinion that reloads are not the cause of most catastrophic shotgun failures. barrel obstuctions immediately in front of the chamber would have to be solid as well to cause failures of the type described recently on ts.com. we tried at least 10 20 ga. live rounds in front of the chamber and they just shoot out with out going off. obstructions farther down the barrel can cause barrel ruptures. however, we tried base wads that we manually removed from winchester shells and it just shot them out as well. they could cause ruptures in thin barrels however and i would be cautious about them.
as i have stated many times, do not try overloads in your shotgun. i think that the h & r is no more or no less "strong" that most trap shotguns but conditions vary and it is dangerous business to try overloads.
i think the cause of most catastrophic failues is a high velocity gas leak. what allows that to happen is always the hard thing to figure out. i think in most cases, it comes from a stress crack that develops from many rounds being fired through the gun.
bruce bowen www.bbguns.net