Split Barrel Savage M.L. McPherson
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this gun is the phenomenal symmetry of the barrel split — dead centered along and vertical to bore axis. Only significant deviation from a perfectly straight tear surface appears to be related to rifling — spacing of offsets appears to average out to match endwise land-to-land spacing. With the lighting just right, stretched area of barrel rearward of obvious split was just barely visible to the naked eye. Camera seems to have exaggerated it (by electronic magic, or otherwise) and it clearly shows in expanded view, at bottom.
attempt to clear a barrel obstruction by firing the gun. I pray that every reader of this magazine does know better. I offer this because it is interest- ing and because it might remind us all to be diligent about checking for bore obstructions.
S
While my friend and fellow VHA member, Jim Williamson, and I were visiting a local trading post I was talk- ing to the proprietor, gunsmith Robin Martin, when Williamson found a treasure.
Williamson exclaimed, “Mic, have you seen this?”
“Seen what?” I replied. When I turned to look at what he was pointing at, hanging on the wall, I had to agree, it was worth seeing. Pictures included here should well explain why. Martin recounted the following
story: “A young man brought that rifle in, asking to have it repaired. He claimed that all he did was shoot it. That he had already shot it several times without doing anything else….” When Martin questioned his ex- planation, the gun owner insisted that
Robin Martin, proprietor and gunsmith, Stagecoach Trading Post, Cortez, Colorado, holding interesting remains of a rifle. This one is a fine example of how not to clear a barrel obstruction, as the gun owner discovered and demonstrated.
ynopsis: Evidently, some folks do not know better than to
he had not dropped the gun or done anything else that could have contrib- uted to the problem. Martin persisted with question-
ing. Finally, he got the truth. The bore had been clogged with mud when the owner decided to clear that by firing the gun. As the Quigley character would have said, “One thing is for sure and for certain, that approach most certainly worked – it cleared that clogged bore, wide open.”
The rest of the story is that the gun owner returned to the trading post three times, each time insisting that Martin repair the gun. Each time, Martin explained that nothing exists to repair – barrel nut and front end of receiver are measurably stretched laterally.
I have several observations. First, when fired at minus three inches from the muzzle, a 7mm Remington Mag- num bullet packs a serious punch; second, Savage builds a phenomenally concentric barrel; third, shooting mud from a bore does a fantastic job of polishing away rifling. About three inches from muzzle end exists a section about one and a half inches long that is slightly bulged – or would be if the barrel were still a barrel. Throughout that zone, no visible evidence of rifling exists.
Close-up view from above shows visible crack extending to within about one inch of barrel nut. Naked-eye inspection revealed evidence of incipient separation reaching practically to nut. Measurements show that receiver width is about 5/1000-inch greater at front than just forward of magazine opening.
Page 176 Winter 2013
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