Ed, I went too many years not buying Damascus barreled guns because I fell for the erroneous information that said they were all unsafe to shoot. Many people thought, and still think they are all unsafe, even with black powder.
Would you turn down the chance to drive a 1936 Deusenberg, just because it doesn't have seat belts? My Damascus guns were built to be shot, and I won't hurt them or myself by shooting them. When you shoot Damascus, you are enjoying a lost art that would be largely unaffordable if it was still produced today.
If a gun is safe to shoot with an 8000 psi black powder load, it is also safe with a smokeless load producing the same pressure. As far as black pwder loads providing a sort of idiot control by making overloads less possible, I'm a lot more concerned about the possibility of a mistake with some fast burning powders like Red Dot in handgun cartridges, where double, triple, or even quadruple loads are possible. I do shoot more than my share of black powder, love the aroma, and don't find it terribly inconvenient to do the cleaning afterwards.
I'm also not losing any sleep knowing that some of my shotguns may have less than 100% perfect rib solder joints. A set of 30" barrels has about 10 linear feet of top and bottom rib solder joints, and it isn't realistic to expect absolute perfection. Do some rust bluing, and it won't be long before you see bubbles in the boiling tank or have a problem with crap leaking out and causing streaking during a rusting cycle.
Shoot Damascus Ed. Live a little.
