Sent you a PM

Thanks pal, I got it. sounds like a good idea. Seeing how I can't find a barrel for the gun.

I have one of those barrels sitting in a gun safe. I could be talked out of it. Ron

I would have another range session with it before doing anything drastic. It's possible that it will shoot just fine.

This is one of my hunting guns and that is why I am double sick. The primary bullet I shoot is the Barnes MZ sabot. I am thinking of taking her to the range and checking it out with the sabot. If she shoots as good as she used to, I may do just that and keep her as is. However still waiting to hear back from old Idahoron on that barrel. But no matter what, I will keep all posted on the results!!!

NEWS FLASH!!!

While over on a primitive gun forum the boys over there may have given me an answer to how the barrel got bulged. It turns out I may have used my starter to get the bullet down the barrel and then forgot to ram it home.

I got the starter out and lined it up and sure enough, it matches the bulge. At least I know now how. But it doesn't make it feel any better. Somehow I got interrupted during my loading process and didn't finish the job!

Am I just stupid or just getting old?????

It happens. I've done it myself with my .54 Great Plains flinter and a patched ball. The shot sounded kind of funny and I knew immediately what I'd done. Fortunately there was no harm to the barrel.

I have done it only once too, but luckily I was shooting BH 209 (progressive so needs compression to go bang), so all it did was go pop and push the bullet about 6 ft out of the barrel. Was I lucky

Lucky it didn't blow up on you.

I did the same thing once using BH209 and i was also very lucky. I knew as soon as it fired what i had done.

rafsob

I sure hope Ron can help you out. That is my favorite mass production sidelock and would hate to see its life end so early.

BTW have you ever tried 54x50 sabots? Ive got a bunch and 50cal bullets upto 385gr you can try out. Ive got some cheap 50cal 325gr and 335gr HPs that should be awesome in that gun. They dont even need more than 1500fps to perform properly and they are "bonded".