banzaibird, and other builders following this post, I'm the guy filling up the new "Building ..." forum with those all too long posts about a DR on a Rossi outside hammer 20ga. Thanks for your replies and suggestions, and thanks to another member/poster, Judson here in Maine who spent nearly an hour on the phone with me!

The stretching Bland is what interests me, as with my 40 yrs. experience as a tool & diemaker with many of those years doing machining & weld repairs on old broken and worn equipment components, one gets a gut feeling regarding material strengths and hardness. The Brazilian Rossi shotguns apparently had no national proof system, were imported to the U.S. in quantity beginning in the late '60s, first by Garcia and later Interarms, and import stopped apparently in the late '80s/'90s due to Federal regulations regarding outside hammer safety issues. I've heard of one blowing up either due to the old "20 in a 12ga detonated by a 12" or a blown and lodged base wad, and over the years seen photos of one for sale with a bulged barrel in the chamber/forcing cone area, and last week examined what I'd thought was potentially a bargain "loose" 28" brld 12ga 3" on Rossi’s Squire hammerless action (felt sloppy w/forend removed). After closer inspection I found I couldn't close the action with a small strip of bond paper shim inserted on one side of either the watertable!! or standing breech – it was 9PM and they were closing but I was assured by their shotgun “expert” that he’d shoot it w/heavy 3” loads and the price was firm @ $240-.

Maybe I’m being a bit too paranoid about taking a decent $400- shotgun and cutting the barrels back to a monoblock, then fitting new rifle barrels, only to find after proofing that it won’t adequately handle the pressure. I guess from reading the builder’s posts here, that I wouldn’t be the first and that it’s part of the learning curve for many.

Joe (hobbyguymaine)