doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How many of you shoot Damascus barrel guns

Every thing that I load is targeted for about 9,000 psi.including my practice pigeon loads. I don't necessarley use 7625 but peak pressure is 9 K by design.

I have no idea just how old Bell is but I would suspect BP pressures were quite well documented long prior to his birth. I know they had been long prior to mine & I'm 73.
One factor of BP is its ability to burn at essentially a constant rate irregardless of confinement & pressure. Smokeless powder does not have this characteristic, which is why it has less restrictions on handling etc.
7625 was designed as a smokeless propellant to fit a particular niche in burn rates. The slowness of its burn in comparsion to some other shotshell propellants which makes it have a similar pressure curve to BP also makes it somewhat temperture sensitive, a factor not found in BP. It was not designed as a subsitute for BP.
Due to the temperture factor of smokeless as I want to be able to use any of my loads in cold weather if desired, I personally do not load smokeless to pressures below about 7500psi.
Others do so & seemingly get way with it, but I had some 7625 loads totally let me down in a duck swamp with temps in the low 20s F & the pressure of those were about 7K. Load was taken directly from old DuPont manual, current at the time of occurance.

Miller, I also have used an awful lot of 7625 but have had serious failures at temperatures below freezing. Downright dangerous, in fact, since in the field one isn't paying as much attention to the possibility of a stuck wad. I have since changed to PB, which has similar characteristics to 7625. It is quite temperature tolerant.

One of the problems with using old data is our assumptions. We assume that manufacturers 100+ years ago produced consistent powder from run to run. In fact, the proof houses knew very well that they did not. They had special gauges to measure the pressure of each lot and adjust their proof loads accordingly.

While I found that long series of posts on Shotworld interesting, I also thought it just a rehash of numerous posts made here over the years.

When Google Books first reared it's head, I along with many others started "mining" it. I eventually came to realize that people 100+ years ago had just as many axes to grind as we do today. It is a mistake to quote this old information without a critical view of it.

A good example of this are the old English proof house tests. The test was skewed to show that only England produced the finest barrels. It was done about 15 years before the English stopped all production of damascus. This was during a period when they simply could not compete in the international trade. Indeed, they had been losing that market for some time. The proof house was protecting it's own in this case. To this, I find no fault. We simply need to understand the situation of the day.

Pete

What in Gods� name was a loaded shotgun doing in the truck in the first place and then to compound it by pulling out by the barrels can only get you a Darwin award. If I put a loaded shotgun in a vehicle on a shoot in England I�d never be invited back !, best, Mike

Familiarity and complacency breed contempt and lulls ones sense and sensibility.

My point exactly!

I was responding to the statement that hammer guns were less safe than hammerless guns. It's not the type of gun but the SAFE HANDLING of a gun that prevents accidents.

Safe handling includes keeping the gun unloaded when it should not be loaded and controlling where the muzzle is pointed when it is loaded.

I own and shoot several old damascus barreled guns English and American made.I use low pressure shells in all my old guns regardless of barrel material,no point abusing old guns for no reason.When I was a boy I often shot my uncles old hammer double using Winchester hi velocity 2 3\4" shells from the local Western Auto store.50 years later I still have that gun.It is a Crescent arms twist barrel gun that was sold by Montgomery Ward.It has 2 1\2" chambers and is right now tight and on face after many years of (unknowing) abuse.I reckon those guns are stronger than a lot of folks think!

I have shot damascus guns a fair bit in the past. The last ten years or so I have been shooting more modern guns(1920's and 30's)with steel barrels due to the better stock dimensions, not the barrel steel. I recently picked up a damascus barreled Westley to be restocked for myself. I feed all my old guns the same no matter the composition of the steel, low pressure and light loads is what they were designed to digest.

How you figure that ?