Shotgun barrel bulge.

[Buckbrush]

I pulled the franchi affinity 20 gage out of the gun cabinet yesterday. And noticed a bulge in the middle of the barrel. A perfect ring and the barrel flaring out towards the end. The choke tube looks okay it thread's in and out and the others go in with out a lot of play.. l was on a grouse hunt
I don't remember hearing anything odd but after hunting I was trying out some homemade buck shot loads. I was worried they would be over pressure. I shot about 4 of them checking to see if anything looked out of wack. Everything looked okay so I shot about 6 more and never checked again. I had the gun out once more after that and didn't remember seeing it. I don't know if a over pressured load would cause this or it had some sort of barrel blockage?
Never had this happen before but I'm pretty new to shotgun reloading. I've shot this load a few times and never had a problem. Was going to use it tomorrow on the opener of pheasant not now I guess.

 

[LopeHunter]

I would personally never fire anything down that barrel ever again. I would also make sure any custom loads are not pushing the limit. Is a freaking shotgun, not a mortar. Can always upsize from a 20 gauge if want more smack further out.

 

[Ben Lamb]

You're gonna want a new barrel: https://www.shopfranchi.com/barrels.html

 

[Buckbrush]

Yeah I'm getting a new barrel for it. I was wondering if a overpressure load would do this or damage the receiver first if it was over pressure. What I'm trying to figure out is how did it happen.

 

[D4570]

Ever shot steel-shot shells?
If they were very old they will rust together and make a "Steel" slug.
I have an old marlin "Goose" gun, it has a very large ring from the old-style steel shotshells.
I still shoot it and it makes a Fine 36" barreled slug gun, 3-shot clip feed bolt.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Yeah I'm getting a new barrel for it. I was wondering if a overpressure load would do this or damage the receiver first if it was over pressure. What I'm trying to figure out is how did it happen.

It sounds like it was probably your reloads not firing off right. Could have been a wad or something that got sideways, etc. Maybe too many balls in the buckshot load? Tough to say without seeing it, the shells from your reloads or being there.

 

[Bsquad]

Ever shot steel-shot shells?
If they were very old they will rust together and make a "Steel" slug.
I have an old marlin "Goose" gun, it has a very large ring from the old-style steel shotshells.
I still shoot it and it makes a Fine 36" barreled slug gun, 3-shot clip feed bolt.

Is 36" barrel a typo?!?

 

[D4570]

Is 36" barrel a typo?!?

No typo
In fact, you could buy an extension another 36"

Marlin Model 55 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bsquad]

No typo
In fact, you could buy an extension another 36"

Marlin Model 55 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Hahaha!
It's not a shotgun anymore, it's a howitzer.

 

[Buckbrush]

I'm not so sure it was the reloads. It came off of ballistics web sight. The home stead load I think and they have a hotter load in the reloading manual. Not saying I could not have made an error. I'm pretty good at them actually. Degree in Life of hard knocks. If you're not smart you gotta be tuff.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I'm not so sure it was the reloads. It came off of ballistics web sight. The home stead load I think and they have a hotter load in the reloading manual. Not saying I could not have made an error. I'm pretty good at them actually. Degree in Life of hard knocks. If you're not smart you gotta be tuff.

Most of the problems I've had in this space were by my own poor product, so I'm just going off my experience.

 

[Buckbrush]

True very true

 

[buffybr]

Sometime way back when I noticed a slight bulge in the barrel of one of my Ruger 7 1/2" SBH .44 magnum pistols. I've shot hundreds of shots through it since then without any accuracy or other problems.

 

[ImBillT]

1) Can we see a picture.

2) If the bulge is on the muzzle end of the barrel, your barrel is not unsafe. Pressure is highest in the chamber or just after the chamber depending on loading. A bulge near the muzzle would be due to A) an obstruction that bulged when impacted or B) bridging of steel shot). I’ve had a few wads stick in a barrel after a shell did went “poof” instead “bang”. Had I left that wad in there, the barrel would have been damaged. Two of those times were factory black cloud loads.

If the bulge in on the muzzle end, pattern you gun. If the pattern is normal, don’t ever let it bother you.

 

[2rocky]

I've heard of a muzzle bulge from shooting steel shot through a full choke.



any load that won't compress will create enough pressure to bulge the barrel. .

 

[longbow51]

The only time I have seen this is when a guy reloaded some paper hulls, even though the manual said not too, and apparently a bit of the fixed wadding at the base stuck in the barrel. Bulged with the next shot.

 

[Buckbrush]

The bulge is not very noticeable. It's only .02 big by .5" wide it's closer to the muzzle end but center of barrel. I haven't shot steel out of it in over a year. Maybe I missed seeing it before. I've never had a squib load in it. The only thing I can think is a bore obstruction going through thick pines and brush or a overpowered load. The end is not flared out as I thought it's just made that way after looking at my other shotgun barrels they both flare out slightly at the muzzle end. Sorry it's hard to show in the picture. Camera don't pick it up you can feel it more than see it

 

[OntarioHunter]

When reloading with oversize shot, even if it is lead, one has to be cautious. Very large shot is not going to compress like smaller stuff. Also, the rage these days seems to be making shotguns lightweight (dumb!) Often this is done by shaving metal from the barrel. Don't push the envelope with newer shotguns. Go ahead and feed anything through an old 12 magnum 870. I shot mine a LOT over almost thirty years with steel through fixed full choke and never had a problem. But those barrels were very tough. Almost the exception. NEVER shot anything larger than BB or with more gas than 1550 fps.

 

[blacksheep]

This happened to a friend of mine. He was shooting reloads and the wad from the previous round stuck where the choke threads into the barrel and the next shot made a bulge just like the picture showed. He was shooting a Remington 11-87.

blacksheep

 

[OntarioHunter]

ALWAYS check the bore if your gun fires a squib load. Hard to believe someone who had to manually eject an empty from an auto shotgun would not look down the bore before loading another round.

I can maybe see this being more common in the field with a pump shotgun. Shooter wants to get that bird with follow up and simply keeps cycling after a squib. Back in the sixties, before the company was taken over by someone else, CCI primers were infamous for duds. I would usually encounter two or three per box of 100 when reloading shotshells. Once when I was jump shooting ducks on a creek I pushed up a pair of mallards. Dropped the drake, swung on the hen, "click," and ejected that shell to get her with the third round. Just as the dud cleared my 870's chamber it exploded! Pellets tore the right sleeve on my coat but thankfully no damage to me. Had that hang fire rotated a few degrees more before detonation I would have taken the blast in my face. To this day I have never loaded another CCI primer. A few years back I had a factory Federal hot pheasant shell hang fire AND squib but I was shooting an A-5 then so it stayed in the chamber till it went off. I had to find a stick long and tough enough to shove the wad back down to open receiver. About an hour later Opal made perhaps her most memorable point on that same rooster in a little patch of snowberries at the end of a draw. Had to wait a couple of minutes for it to flush. He was not so lucky this time.