"Twist" steel is indeed the least complex of all of the composite options available (ie., twist, laminated steel, & true Damascus) and it was evidently also the least expensive to produce (as it required less human time & skilled effort). Twist was also the last example of a composite-barreled type of doublegun that I finally secured for my own use (as I presumed then that cheaper meant "less-safe" but I'm well-over all that now).
If a gunbarrel was competently made and then properly cared for (no corrosion is allowed to occur) it's useful lifespan is nearly endless...as long as it is not subjected to internal pressures that exceed its "elastic limit" (the point where deformation occurs).
My admittedly rudimentary understanding of the composite barrel options is that they mostly all fall into the 55,000 psi range for burst strength (some of the laminated steel versions might be a bit stronger. Early fluid steels were only in the 65k range btw). Compare that to the famous 1890s German Krupp fluid steel at 90k psi or even Winchester's Proof Steel at 120k psi and you'll perhaps better understand the initial concerns about their use with some of the hotter and longer "magnum" shells being produced in this country in the later 1930s.
I started out by loading black powder shells to use in my 1st composite barrelled gun (a damascus G-grade Lefever) but that quickly became a royal pain. At about that time, the "Finding Out for Myself " series of articles by Sherman Bell came out in the Doublegun Journal and I finally found the confidence I needed to use lighter but "modern" ammunition in these guns (the fact that these composite-barrelled guns pass Nitro proof regularly in Great Britain also figured heavily into my considerations). After several "Damascus" guns (both English and American) and almost 30-years of admittedly-sporadic use (I like fluid steel guns too) and I've yet to have had any issues.
You ether live in fear or you educate yourself and then move forward into the world.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 02/20/26 12:00 PM.
