The last three decades of my career were spent as the tech guy for a distributor of specialty high temperature alloys, Rolled Alloys. Designing, fabricating and using equipment intended to work while glowing a cheerful red is a very specialized and not-well-understood field. They do not teach it in college. Best design practice for stuff working at red heat is sometimes quite the opposite from making a bridge or an automobile. Part of Rolled Alloys' business model was to be knowledgeable regarding the how our product behaved in heat treat furnaces and other thermal processing applications. We had to deal with the same problems over and over and over, as almost no one else understood the matter. Our President impressed on us that while we had dealt with seen this problem many times, it was new, the first time, for any given customer. That required patience.
Eventually I ran out of that patience, at least once, and alienated, rather than helped, a customer or two.
In the process of dealing with modern muzzle loading gun failures I have learned the details, and seen hospital photos of, a number of failures where what was supposed to be a fun activity crippled some working man. I consider loss of a hand, an eye, or a scoop of brain a serious matter and I become a bit emotional about what has happened to these people. Others here, Dan Phariss in particular, have seen far more serious injuries than have I.
One does not forget these things.
True, I am not up-to-date on current barrel failures.. What I found courtesy a lawyer was in a type of muzzle-loader not covered by this site, and involved some variation of 416 (also free-machining) stainless.
But just how politely can I put this? As a responsible engineer I would never select or suggest a 1200 series steel to contain exploding gunpowder.
I used to be very enthused about studying, shooting and to a mild degree building, Kentucky rifles. Used to own 5/6 of a Michigan curly maple tree, cut up by Armstrong Millworks, of Highland Michigan in 1973. Made a nice .45 flint copy of a Shriver & carried it to local shoots. When I learned what my barrel was made of I was quite displeased. Quite. I laid it aside & have not fired it since. Right now it is in the basement, barrel and breechplug about six feet apart. Having then nothing to use at the next Canoe Shoot I brought a British Paget flint carbine. Shooting Napoleonic war surplus wasn't so wise, but my did that thing carry a heavy ball!
As far as cost goes, there is not a whole lot of choice anyway in American made barrels.
Jim McLemore has made barrels of 4150 Rifle Barrel Quality steel (used for machine guns), I believe some for chunk gun shooters. He bought Bill Large's old machinery to work this 4150.
I am told that Ed Rayl uses 8620, a low carbon nickel-chromium-molybdenum steel, in his barrels. Never met the man, know absolutely nothing about his barrels. Well, I saw some of his pistol barrels at Log Cabin, and Caywood Guns has used his barrels for their Southern Mountain Rifle.
No doubt it takes more time to bore, machine the flats on, and rifle a barrel of any low-sulfur, low-phosphorus steel than it does one of 1200 series steel.
The Italians and the Spanish seem to manage this, I do not know how.
I will continue to provide what technical information I believe helpful to the long range interests of this sport.
Perhaps one might be forgiven for occasionally forgetting basic diplomacy?
from 1856.
