1jonmon,
I recommend you get your Bergara and don't look back, just pay attention, check things like we all do with all our equipment
I wrote a couple replies to you as you were putting this together, forend questions, etc.
There are some well-intended folks who seem a little quick to jump on the bash-Bergara bandwagon. I like my T/C barrels and my Bergara barrels. If you're gonna be paranoid about checking for cracks, you will need to be with any barrel you own.
The example cited to a previous thread with pictures is the
only example I have seen or can find on the web concerning any Bergara failures. Please keep in mind this was not a full failure, thankfully.
Mr Grumulkin said in that thread "Actually, if judged by complaints on the web, there are significantly more complaints about Bergara barrels than about T/C barrels and since there are relatively few Bergara barrels out there it would indicate to me that their main advantage is being cheap.
I've NEVER heard of welds cracking on a T/C barrel." note - There are several web examples of complete failures from T/C and other custom barrel makers out there. The greatest web volume has been on this forum, and the complaints were about where they were made - not the barrel quality. There were more than 5 pages of speculation and innuendo that deteriorated into the classic Ford vs. Chevy, foreign vs. domestic stuff. Not very useful to us shooters.
The pictures caused me to wonder what sort of things had been this barrel been exposed to? There are mysterious dark rings on the frame by the hinge pin holes. A couple of scratches that don't seem normal. The cracks are just started. Is it possible that they are just in the slag at the end of the weld? I'd love to know what the real penetration of those welds was, no way to know now.
I puzzled over the poster saying 'it seemed looser'. As intact as the welds are, nothing in relation to the barrel/hinge pin could have measurably changed. There could have been a problem with the fit of things at the breech end.
What kind of loads were involved? We don't know that either.
I know that in my fiddling around I have gotten a couple cases stuck when checking and setting dies, resizing, etc. So I removed the barrel and pondered it for a while,took a punch and tapped the extractor tip to knock the case out. I wondere if just maybe a hammer might have been used to do the same thing and knocked some slag loose. Someone please cite me more examples of Bergara barrel failures before I hurt myself.
