My goodness but that hull appears to have been subjected to incredibly high pressures! Look at the fire forming of the head and the cratering around the primer. Wow!
Just my take on using nitro in damascus guns: I shoot a lot of nitro in BP proofed guns and feel much safer for it. Properly loaded nitro is far gentler on these old guns with less stress on them. As far as proofing them is concerned most of them in America have been "proofed" thousands of times over their lifetime. What more could be learned by firing some insanely high pressured loads in them just to see how much they can stand? Heck, I think it's nuts to even consider stuffing high pressure factory loads in these wonderful relics of a past age. Use the gentler nitro and quit worrying about it.
Last edited by Joe Wood; 10/20/12 06:09 PM.
