doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What is it about Damascus?

sorta like jumpin duh snake river canyon on ah rocket propelled motor cycle...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

Yeah, I remember Evel. and his son, Robbie.
How does that relate to damascus or laminated steel? If you are implying they are unsafe, why does the Birmingham proof house nitro proof damascus barrels? The British are way more safety oriented then we are over here. Why would they do that?
Here's my "proof" (1954 rules)



Been shooting this shotgun since the 80's with light loads.

Just because this is a thread about the beauty of Damascus, I thought I'd add some pics.

The first is my Remington 1894 B grade, shortly after the barrels were redone by Chris Dawe, a member here. That gun has headed down the road in my move to lighter weights and smaller gauges.



Then there is this Sauer, shown in it's "as I found it" state. It is in the middle of a redo at the moment. It's still a 12 gauge but on the lighter side.



And my newest project gun......a 16 gauge



It will take a while but I think those two will make a fine pair of grouse guns.....the Sauer for plains grouse and the Daly for ruffies.

Love the barrels on the Remington and the Daly

James:

I'm having work done on a heavy gun now, with almost 4lb British laminated steel barrels It's purely for targets as my game guns weren't made for such a repeated hammering (& frankly, neither am I anymore). There's a place in my battery for both types of guns these days. When I started down this path, many years ago now, any shotgun I bought had to earn it's keep (as they were a luxury that was pretty hard to justify). In the early 1990s, there wasn't much credible information available to folks such as myself so...I delved into a bit of history, physics, and finally metallurgy. My earth science background helped, but only as a precursor. What finally made me comfortable with using a braided-steel gun was ultimately understanding the theory of "elastic limits" in steel. Dr. Drew was also providing information on this site about then as well, which helped immensely. Before that, the same concerns (which Keith mentioned earlier here) kept me from owning several lovely damascus guns (and they were pretty inexpensive then). Ed clearly still subscribes to the then more commonly-held belief that damascus guns are dangerous (as is his perogative). I have fully satisfied myself about their relative safey and about how such a campaign to sully their reputation was conducted in this country (by clearly self-interested propagandists).

Lloyd, I came to this game relatively late. 2005 to be exact. And immediately delved into the Double Gun Journal in a big way. So as quickly as I was enamoured by vintage guns, so I was by Damascus, with the clear understanding that, after the usual checks, shooting Damascus was just fine. It’s been more of an issue of what has come along and seduced me. In fact one of my earliest purchases was a 1880s Henri Pieper sidelock. It’s a total wreck of a gun that I will likely never get around to restoring but it has these big, beautiful Damascus barrels that I fell in love with the moment I saw them. I’d give the gun away but I can’t part with the barrels. Hahaha.

The French moved on to steel barrels a decade or two before anyone else. There was a time when it was just as unusual to see a Damascus barrel on a new French gun, as it was to see a steel barrel on a new English gun. In all the time I’ve spent studying French guns, I can’t say I ever saw a bias, safety concerns, or otherwise, about using Damascus guns. Nearly every gun shop in France had a few hanging around the place when I was there, and they were just old guns, waiting for a buyer. At that time, 20 bird seasons and two dogs ago for me, getting ammunition to run them wasn’t a problem. That may have changed by now.
I suspect the French were quite happy to have a cooperatively owned steel plant right in the center of their sporting and military gun making towns, and to be free of reliance on Belgium for Damascus tube sets. French proof was the highest in Europe, by law.

I’ve managed to avoid being bitten by that bug. Several times, over the years, while hunting with a small group, the topic of ammunition to feed someone’s English gun has come up, and the trouble it took to find it, and when the conversation turned to what ammunition I needed to feed my Darne, I replied “ Anything. They aren’t picky”.

If a store in some part of Minnesota sells ammunition, there is a better than good chance they have something I can run in a Darne.

I’m good with that.

Best,
Ted

My apologies if we're already discussed the proof marks of the Cashmore Bob.
The original proof is 1896-1904 (MAXm) for 1 1/4 oz. with bore '13' = .710" - .718".
Reproof 1954-1989 for 3 1/4 TONS = 9800 psi with bore now .729".
The arrow is the proof date code which I can not decipher. For some reason it was often stamped upside down from the other marks.



And then there is this one - what could they have been thinking?!?
1888 12g J. Blanch with 2 3/4” chambers, reproved in 1999 (Crown over R) for CIP Service pressure 740 BAR = 10,733 psi; Maximum statistical individual pressure 850 BAR = 12,328 psi.

Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

Best,
Ted

gee ted, we agree...