A great thread on shooting damascus barrels with nitro powders
 

This is a very long and thoroughly informative read on the subject of shooting damascus barrels with nitro powder shells. I don't know who Bob S. is but he writes with intelligence and has done his homework. Again this is very long but if you read the whole thing you will find great reinforcement that shooting nitro in Damascus poses no issues. Enjoy

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/view...t=259371&hilit

That thread is much like watching a professional wrestling match after three martinis. I would rather reread Sherman Bell than the linked thread. Sherman says it like it is without the bickering.

That's fine. I can't compare the two because I have never watched a wrestling match and don't drink beyond a beer once in awhile to be social.
To me there was not that much bickering, he countered opposing opinions for the most part with critical thought and supporting info. He reinforced SB's work with other information and his own experiences with such matters. I found it interesting and thought I would share with others.

Pete,
I too found it interesting on several fronts; the technical data, historically information and the current view of damascus=(wall hanger) and it all adds to the topic and provides more talking points for the "personal decision" to shoot or not to shoot damascus. Even though I made my decision years ago, I still like to see this once in a while.

If so many people are shooting damascus barrels, then why aren't we hearing more about failures?

Steve, Many of us on here shoot our composite barrelled(damascus,twist,bernard) Parker's both in the field and at clay's with appropriate loads.

Seems like the damascus controversy is alive and well on the ShotgunWorld forum, eh? Pretty fun read. Sure gets some of the guys fired up.

I just posted over there on Shotgun World. I've been there for a few years.

I've been a reloader for decades, but have never reloaded shotshells. I'm going to buy a Lee Load All and give it a whorl. I'll follow the instructions and load appropriate shells. I'd like to charge some shells with some non-toxic shot of somekind. Bizmuth? What do you guys use for non-toxic shot in your old Parkers?

The barrels on my GH look almost new and show no rust. LOP is perfect for me.

I followed Bell's articles in DGJ with interest. He said that he was going to test wall hangers and then he took pictures of the guns all lined up. While a few were indeed dogs some looked pretty non-wall hangerish to me.

He did an excellent job documenting his efforts and it wasn't easy to get any of the guns to let go, but some eventually did, but only after huge overloaded proof test loads were used.

As I was reading Bell's articles I kept thinking, Why am I always told to NEVER shoot damascus guns with other than BP loads? Others obviously do.

I called Martin Rettings, who sell old guns and have for decades from their store in Culver City, CA. They told me that "directly from the NRA" that it is not safe to shoot damascus barrels since there can be microscopic rust that develops within the welds and that all damascus barrels grow weaker and weaker over time. Then the fellow said, "But lots of guys do it."

So it is a personal choice to shoot or not to shoot and I've made a personal choice to shoot my GH. I can't wait!

Have any of you folks ever heard of one letting go?

Here is my little Hardy Bros muzzle loader that I overloaded so severly 50 years ago. I have no idehttp://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...hotguns003.jpga who made the gun, but the reader can see that it is a very nice little shotgun. Very light and fast with excellent bores. I haven't shot it for years, but this year may.