Originally Posted by
flounder33
What do you mean when you say they are drilled out below the threads Grouse? Do you consider the breech plugs that doc white used to be cheap breech plugs made of substandard materials?
Not Grouse but I will add my 2 cents... I question Doc about this very subject one time. His BP's were made of very high quality steel and then sent out for a hardening process to some ridiculusly high Rockwell number, I honestly can not remember the number. But because of this process that short little BP is one of the strongest chunks of metal that you will find. Doc was critically aware of the fact that one of the weakest links in a plunger type ML is the BP, the threads of the barrel and on the BP. And remember his favorite bullet was that 600 grain conical that he made for his whites....
Also Browning or Weatherby conducted some pressure tests on doc's barrels and actions that were pure he double hockey sticks. You would not believe the pressure that these guns were subjected to.