Damascus Steel

Damascus Steel Shotgun Barrels.

Ever seen them?  They are beautiful.  Certainly to me, and I bet to some of you.

You see em advertised in those reprints of the Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs from 1906 or so.

And they are for sale at gunshows with other antique items.

The conventional wisdom you hear from gun store clerks around the ol' pot belly stove, jawin', about them old shotties is don't you dare shoot em!  They were made for black powder cardboard cartridges.  If you put something in there with modern smokeless powder you'll just blow up them barrels!

Meh.  Sound like bushwa to me.

If I was a gun manufacture from around 1912 I'd spread that word around too.  "Don't shoot grand daddy's shotgun!  Or even daddy's!  What with the new gunpowder what you need are some of these new fangled all steel barrels that we just happen to sell.  And forget what we said about them damascus barrels back 15 years ago when we sold you that.  That we had ad copy then that we loaded it with a proof round with 5 times the normal measure of powder to test every gun barrel...."

You are more likely to break the old stock that to break that old barrel. 

If I had one, I'd shoot it.  Prolly for clays only though, out of an abundance of caution.  Rock dove.  Pheasant.  I don't think goose hunting is the way to go.  Or deer, in my case.  But #7 birdshot, sure.  Well, if the gun was made by an American or English maker.  Something churned out by the Ottoman's is another matter.