One aspect of loading these barrels springs to mind... The ammunition. These round lead balls were rammed so hard down the barrel that they became elongated ...ironically more like the shape of modern bullets. The most common cause of barrels parting was the use of modern powder often using the contents of Martini Henry ammo..coupled with ramming some sort of plug or bullet down the barrel making the breach create too much pressure and the resulting barrel parting at the first join...or worse the catastrophic disintegration of the entire breach section and peeling back of the entire gun barrel at that point
