jerry huddleston said:
I wonder if tubbing is used on any modern guns and if not , Why Not?
Did you know that black powder is capable of producing 100,000 psi. under certain conditions?
No, tubing is not used on modern gun barrels, but neither is 12L14 which is used successfully for thousands of muzzleloader barrels every year. Both materials are not suitable for the pressures of some FACTORY loaded nitro ammunition.
It does not surprise me that black powder can produce 100,000 psi under certain conditions. Does it do this with 80 grains of powder and a short started ball, or even a double, or triple charge? Because if it does, it does not matter what the barrel is made of and a modern gun barrel will fail with those kind of pressures. A modern 12 gauge proof load is only about 20,000 psi, which is roughly double a heavy field load.
This discussion reminds me of the hysteria over damascus shotgun barrels that has been going on in this country (and only this country I might add) for the past 100 years. There has been a lot of testing done on damascus barrels during the past decade, and the fears that have been fed to the public by shotgun manufactures a century ago (and for some reason many people still hold on to) have been found to be completely ridiculous.
Sherman Bell, who has probably done more testing on damascus barrels than anyone in the last 100 years, gives me my favorite analogy which I will paraphrase...One mountain climber weights 250 lbs. and climbs a mountain with a rope rated at 1000 lbs. The second mountain climber weights 350 lbs and uses a rope rated at 2000 lbs. The question is, which one is safer? The answer is that they are both safe since neither rope will break.
Is a barrel that is rated at a lower maximum pressure firing a low pressure load less safe than a high pressure rated barrel firing a high pressure load? That's for each of us to decide.
Each of us much make our own decisions on what an acceptable level of safety is. If someone fears barrels made of DOM, 12L, damascus, etc... and only wants to use modern ordnance steel. Great, but those can and have failed too when abused, and are getting harder and harder for manufactures to keep up with demand, and many strictly black powder barrel manufactures don't even make them out of that grade of steel.
Any barrel can fail when improperly loaded and abused, the point is to know what you are doing and take loading and firing any gun the serious matter that it is. If someone truly has concerns about a barrel, go through a proper proofing session (which involves accurately measuring the i.d. and o.d. of the barrel in many places before and after proofing it) and have it x-rayed as well after that.