doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Damascus gun blow up in Md last weekend?

I'd even have less faith in an old fluid steel shotgun.

At first glance I thought the walls of the chamber had pitting which seemed odd. In the picture of the chamber above, the light is coming from the right casting a shadow. If you look at the bumps on the chamber wall, you will note the sunny side is on the right and the shadow is on the left. That is even stranger. What is up with that? Am I seeing it correctly?

Homeless Joe, Should we send you our Damascus guns for Testing?

Well, the claim for 'factory loaded' smells a bit like fish.

First, the choice of load is not real intelligent.

Remington factory 'Nitro' STS Sporting loads in a Damascus hammer Parker?

How unpleasant would that be if everything went well?

1 1/8 oz at 1300 FPS, 1 oz at 1350 FPS. Those are the two cataloged.

No. I don't buy it. Nobody in their right mind does that.

Those are reloads put up in gold STS cases (I do that all the time myself, the color helps identify the load).

Somebody misidentified the powder, or made some other gross error like a double charge of a dense, quick powder.

The reloads may have been obtained from another person, and the guy is just trying to cover up the real story.

Obviously, my opinion only... a blown barrel without warning with only 10K PSI +/- is just too unlikely.

To illustrate further:

My Damascus load is 12.9 grains of AA Lite behind 7/8 oz.

I bought the last two cans from Gamaliel when that excellent powder was a victim of the Hodgdon monopoly.

This takes a #19 MEC bushing to throw. This is a reduced charge of a dense powder.

A double charge would easily fit in a STS case, and the loader may well not notice it.

18 grains of this stuff is right up to SAAMI maximum using 1 1/8 oz of shot.

Can you imagine 26 grains?

That's up in the 'Bellosphere' as far as pressure, and could have the exact same observed result.

It happens. We're just people.

[quote=Shotgunjones] "To illustrate further:

My Damascus load is 12.9 grains of AA Lite behind 7/8 oz.

I bought the last two cans from Gamaliel when that excellent powder was a victim of the Hodgdon monopoly.

This takes a #19 MEC bushing to throw. This is a reduced charge of a dense powder.

A double charge would easily fit in a STS case, and the loader may well not notice it.


18 grains of this stuff is right up to SAAMI maximum using 1 1/8 oz of shot.

Can you imagine 26 grains?

That's up in the 'Bellosphere' as far as pressure, and could have the exact same observed result.

It happens. We're just people."



An excellent reason to use bulkier powders when loading low pressure loads. For years I have used around 19 grains of PB in either WW AA CF cases or Remington STS cases & WW SL wad in loading 7/8 oz 12 ga.
loads @ around 6000 PSI. You can't double charge it & crimp it.

I've still got a few years of PB left & will miss it when it's used up.

True.

That's the concept behind 'Trail Boss' in metallics.

The chamber is really odd with the raised bumps.

I know of people who use old charge bars that have a fixed powder charge. In other words, no bushing. Just a fixed measure usually on an old 1 1/8 oz. shot charge bar. Stuff from the sixties. Those bars will throw a scary amount of a fast powder like Red Dot.

I saw a guy damage an LC Smith doing just that. I told him those charge bars were for paper shells and fiber wads but he insisted the loads were fine. Even after his gun was damaged.

Only 10,000 psi in a Damascus barrel? Is that considered in the realm of safety for a Damascus barrel?

For a service pressure according to most, no.

But Bell has shown that it's well within survivability.

One would expect to see signs of distress before actual failure, such as deformation if the metal is being pushed beyond it's elastic limits.

This is why I said in an earlier post that such a sudden failure would be unexpected given what we know now, because pattern welded material has shown ductility rather than brittleness in testing.

Unexpected does not mean impossible.