I agree with eeb. I shoot damascus barrels on a regular basis but do feel safer with steel even though I am positive that the risk is just as high since I will use hotter factory loads. I often go to steel barrels when I get tired of making my own low pressure loads. Stallones observations may confirm my feelings.
I think I am a pretty careful guy but one day I loaded my gun, pulled the triggers and had one barrel not fire. I opened the gun and saw that in the heat of a skeet game I forgot to load one of the barrels. Most of you know what happened but I did not realize it. Fortunately, the reading I have done here made me suspicious and a wood dowel was called for and the 20 gauge shell was pushed out of the 12 gauge gun. I learned from that experience how easy it is to make that mistake and I always look down each barrel, often waiting for the smoke to clear, before loading again. I later realized the 20 gauge shell was left over from a different day and was sort of out of sight in one of the folds in the bottom of my vest pocket.
Be careful out there.
