barrel pressures
 

With all the text on this site and elsewhere on the web devoted to concerns over barrel failure, I wonder this:

Why are barrels not tapped for a "blow out" plug, perhaps on the under side of the barrel, built to fail at pressures just below the barrels designed tolerance, thereby at least directing the danger ina less harmful direction? Seems such effort by a manufacturer could go a long way in mitigating injury awards. Cost issue I guess, given the infrequency with which failures occur.

RE: barrel pressures
 

With the corrosive environment I doubt that a fail safe device could be made that would survive all levels of operation given that not everyone takes the same care of their rifle. It would also be another potential item that could backfire and cause some injury to someone even though it might be lessthan what might be experienced with a complete barrel failure. I suspect that if we knew the real numbers of barrels that have ruptured based on the number of barrels that are out there the numbers would be very low.

RE: barrel pressures
 

If that blow out plug were say just below the charge it would have to go intot he stock and/or forearm. How is it going to get thru there, another blow out plug? And if the shooter had his hand/arm right below there seems to me that it is no better a solution than the current solution of letting it blow at the weakest point behind the obstruction. just my opinion, I am not a barrel engineer.
Chap

RE: barrel pressures
 

A bypass valve would work. Once it starts building up pressure it can not handle, the valve pops open and spews all that gases in a safe direction awayfrom the shooter. I dont think barrels expoloding is an issue anymore, RW and all the other guys trying to make other companys look bad who are not lining their pockets are bringing up old rifles that had problems and calling the entire New company bad. Believe me, if barrels were still exploding from factory defect, our anti gun news media would be all over it.

RE: barrel pressures
 

I agree with FG, Guns are not just going to burst on their own and are also proofed to a load that is much higher than the recomened load that are most accurate for the gun/rifle. I have only seen one burst barrel in my life and it was a m/l loader with smokeless powder. The jack@#$ who did it had some nice sharp shards of steel go into his arm. He also felt so bad at what he did he gave the blown up gun to a local shop mounted with a sign underneith stating "Never use smokeless powder in a m/l".

As long as you follow the manual that came with your rifle you should be fine and I also agree that some sort of gas port may cause more harm than good.

RE: barrel pressures
 

Long Hammock barrels told me they proof their barrels by loading 600 grains under 6 roundballs and fire the charge. Even I am not likely to sixtuplet the loading sequence. I suspect failure issuch arare occurence, when used with proper powder,it doesn't deserve discussion time.

RE: barrel pressures
 

When I was young my boss bought a BP revolver from some guy and brought it on the job site. The guy he bought it from gave him all the necessary supplies to shoot it except powder. Well I had this bright idea to cut open a shotgun shell that I had in my glove box and use that powder. We thought all powder was black so it was ok. We loaded one shot in the cylinder and fired it off. We found one half of the cylinder over 150yds from where it was shot and the barrel was missing completely. To this day we have no idea how none of us ended up withmetal in us. Morel of the story is I think that most incedents occur from people who have NO clue what they are doing and that no barrell out there will explode under any conditions that we put them in under normal use with the proper supplies and equipment.

RE: barrel pressures
 

Just how big a problem is this? Are a whole bunch of guys blowing up their muzzleloaders all of a sudden? I have been shooting ML since about 1954, and have never seen a blow-up of this type. As long as a shooter uses no more than the maximum recommended load, and seats his balls on the powder, it is not going to happen. But I do not believe it is possible to build any gun so it is idiot-proof!

RE: barrel pressures
 

This is so true. And if one were touted as idiot proof . . . there would be some idiot come out of the woodwork somewhere to prove he could best it. And of course, in the company of trial lawyers, the cause of the disasterwould have to be the failure of the "idiot proof system".