I had never paid a lot of attention to the discussions regarding ported barrels in Large Frame DW's. Since I got my 744 a while ago, I have put 100-150 rounds through it, some lead, some jacketed. When I got it, it was very clean, and appeared to have been shot very little. I confess now that I checked the B/C gap (.004), checked it for safe function, and shot it. A short while ago, I happened to check the barrel with a flashlight, noticed that it was a ported barrel, and said to myself-OOOPS! Problem?

Tonite I finally got around to pulling the shroud off, a huge chore in itself, involving MUCH Breakfree, wiggling, cursing, yanking, more cursing, more Breakfree, … well, you get the idea. When I finally pulled the shroud off, here's what I found:

Once I looked at the the barrel, I was amazed to see:

When I punched the crap out of the blocked holes, it looked like:

That chunk at the bottom came out of just one hole, and it was packed in so tightly that I needed a punch to drive it out. This is all lead, powder residue, gilding metal, and shavings from jacketed bullets.

This gun had been shot a pretty fair amount without a shroud removal (there was no tool with it), and this has been a great reminder to me to clean them when I get them, and clean more often.

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