Before heating anything----make sure there is not an old load in the barrel. A good friend developed a hole in the wall from neglecting that precaution.
When John and James Gillespie moved to Union County GA in 1849 they opened a shop together. Sometime later one of them was working on a customer's gun, removed the barrel and placed the breech in the forge, probably to heat in order to remove the breech plug. The gun fired and, as the story goes, almost hit the other brother. A fuss ensued and they split up, one on one side of the county and one on the other. The families remained divided for years after.
So check for old loads in those old barrels!
Dennis
