The L.C. Smith Collectors Association
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    Re: Shell selection Archived Message

    Posted by Dan on March 19, 2017, 3:03 pm, in reply to "Re: Shell selection"

    My .02:
    It's your stuff treat it however you please. We all know that if you use stuff hard it wears out sooner but the reason that we own it is to use it.
    More lead provides either denser patterns or use of larger shot with more ft/lbs of energy both which increases lethality at longer ranges.
    My shoulder tells me what I need to know, and now that I'm at a stage of life where I no longer enjoy being beaten up with light loads I can shoot as much as I like.
    Stocks seem to be the weakest link on these guns and glass bedding can make them stronger than original. Unless the wood has been degraded by oil soaking or some other external environmental factor it should be as strong as it ever was. It may have shrunk or cracked from not having been cured sufficiently in the first place.
    Bill Hambidge shows a gold standard glass bedding job in the picture trails. Glass bedding like that and it will be stronger than it ever was originally.
    Why do they crack? Either it was an inferior blank or not sufficiently stable/tempered.
    Wood gets stronger with age and takes a long time to cure. Violin makers like wood that has been curing for 50-75 years.There's a timber frame house in Massachusetts built in 1637. There's a wood frame temple in Japan built a thousand years before that. Wood lasts a long time.
    It is also superior to just about anything when it comes to absorbing shock but the force needs to be distributed to as much surface area as possible. If only a tenth of the surface is making contact, the lb/psi on that area will be ten times higher. Glass bedding can compensate for shrinking and poor quality inletting. Epoxy can be enhanced with microfiber including carbon fiber, etc.
    One thing you can't fix is a gun with a bad blank to begin with. Pay close attention to the grain at the wrist and the head. Some fiddle (curl) tells you the wood is out of the right part of the tree to begin with.
    If you pick a good stock and glass bed it you can make it bulletproof but if you feed the gun a steady diet of stout loads the gun will wear at an accelerated rate and ultimately you will find the second weakest link.
    With all that said, when I get behind the wheel of the car, I drive it.
    Why? Because it increases my enjoyment.

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