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Yes, I am serious about double rifles being able to stand up to as much pressure as a bolt action. (Assuming the rifle is designed to work at such pressures which some are.)

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In reply to:

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First, aside from the matter of fastening them to the action, there is no inherent difference between the barrel on a bolt action and on a double. For the action itself, it's not a matter of pressure but of back thrust.

The few doubles I have seen after catestrophic blow ups all failed in the outside wall (away from the rib) of the barrel in the area from about the sholder of the cartridge to maybe eight inches in front of the cartrdige. The action remained undamaged in all cases.

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Really all this proves is that the barrels let go before the action and that the barrels were the weakest link.
It tells nothing about how strong the action is other than it was stronger than the barrels.
What caused the blowups, dangerously high pressure or flawed barrel steel?
How do you know the actions were undamaged.
How do you know that the actions were not sprung to a dangerous off the face condition as the blow up cartridge was fired and prior to the barrels letting go?

The bottom line IMO is that a quality bolt action will have plenty of strength in reserve when firing a cartridge like 375 belted mag but a double is going to be right at its limit with little in reserve regarding strength.




Edited by 4seventy (25/02/05 04:23 PM)

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