In the early years of the Flues Model Ithaca built their smallbores very light -- 28-gauges as light as 4 3/4 pounds and 20-gauges as light as 5 1/4 pounds. These guns not only had thin barrels chambered for 2 1/2 inch shells, but also had thin frame sides which led to cracked frames when the North American Nimrod began shoving 2 3/4 inch Super-X 20-gauge shells in them!! I'd strongly recommend sticking to very light loads in 2 1/2 inch cases in an early Flues 20-gauge. RSTs or the little 3/4 ounce Lyalvales come to mind.
It is certainly a lightweight. I couldn't get the digital bathroom scales to register. Not to mention the stock has been cut down to 12 3/4" and I run a 1" slip on butt pad. Thanks for your concerns guys but I am fully aware of the seriousness of shooting modern shot shells out of a composite barreled guns. As far as the chambers go, I measureed them with a tape measure and unless I went too far into the forcing cones the chambers are 2 3/4". They could have been reamed out or I measured incorrectly. The recoil doesn't seem to be sharp like shooting a overlength shotshell. This gun was produced more than 25 years after smokeless powder was available. I am sure the makers intended smokeless powder loads to be shot out of it. Certainly lower pressure than todays shotshells none the less. Quality built damascus/twist barrels are much stronger than most people give them credit for. I would be more worried about cracking the wood or the thin bolsters by shooting heavy recoil loads. The only damascus barreled gun I am personally aware of someone blowing up was because he accidently used smokeless instead of blackpowder when loading a 12 gauge. I am going to assume he was using close to 90 grains of BP and while substituting smokeless he was shooting in the ballpark of 6 times the amount of smokeless powder a typical target load would use. Needless to say it took several shots to blow the barrel. As most of you know it took Sherman bell about 30,000psi to blow a badly corroded Parker damascus barrel. With that said, I am not too concerned with shooting a few light target loads and will order some polywad vintagers or RST 2 1/2" shotshells.
Thanks again for your concerns,
KjD
