Shooting a Damascus barreled gun, use black powder only, using smokeless powder shells is like putting your hand in a cage with a ''Snake''',
you are going to get ''Bit'.
Dirty Harry
Harry, I'm going to attempt to explain something to you that you obviously do not understand. Nothing to be embarrassed about when someone is ignorant about something, unless it is explained and that person refuses to acknowledge facts. I'm ignorant of many things, but education can cure ignorance of any topic. So, here goes.
There are two things that blow up barrels and they both are caused by excessive pressure. One is a severe overload in the cartridge/shell. This can cause a chamber blow-out. The other is an obstruction in the barrel, which also causes excessive pressure, which causes a burst further down the bore. The second almost always results in a burst just behind the obstruction. What you're referring to is the first. Remember, an excessively overloaded shell, resulting in excessive chamber pressure, never results in a burst barrel further down the bore, unless there is an obstruction down bore as well.
Now, let's address the shell, in your case, smokeless loads in a damascus barrel. Not to beat a dead horse but, when you assume a smokeless load will blow up a gun, it is actually PRESSURE. I know you like to capitalize words that you are emphasizing so I'll follow your lead here.
Now, I want you to think about that pressure. Excessive pressure in the chamber/load is caused by inappropriate powder, or an overcharge of powder, or some other combination of inappropriate components or, in an unimaginably rare case, an overload AND an obstruction directly in front of the chamber, which is HIGHLY unlikely. The thing that you evidently don't understand is that the TYPE of powder (black or smokeless) is not the cause, in itself, of excessive pressure. It's the AMOUNT of pressure that matters. To put this in grade school terms, the chamber/barrel does not know if the pressure generated is done so by black powder, or smokeless powder. You could blow up a barrel with no powder at all if you could generate enough pressure inside it with a liquid, or with just air. Perazzi does this regularly with liquid to test their barrels.
Just try to think in terms of pressure, not the medium that generates the pressure. As I said in an earlier post on another thread, I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
