The Myth is strong
 

The other day I had to drive to the southern part of the state on a family matter. About an hour out of town I passed an old gun shop that I have not
been in for years. On my return trip I stopped at the shop.
The shop has been long known for a large gun inventory. I went straight to the Gun counter and asked if they had any Vintage Doubles ? No answer. I rephrased the question, any old Double Barrels ? The older clerk lead me to a single rack in the back of the shop. There sat about a dozen crusty old Doubles.Two Remington hammer guns caught my attention. Average condition, one parts gun and a shooter with 32 " twist Barrels. I did a close inspection of the bores. The clerk said, "you know those are not safe to shoot". I asked why ?
"because those are Damascus Barrels, you can't shoot them". I did not respond.The pair was priced right but the tags had written in bold Red letters "unsafe to fire". I decided to take the pair. The clerk informed me that I would have to sign the release form. The form was a standard liability release stating that I agreed that these guns were unsafe to fire. I told the clerk I could not sign the forms.
The clerk proceeded to give me his well practiced dicertation about "blowed up" Damascus and twist Barrels. He then asked me why I would not sign? I said that it was not true. He laughed at me. I did not reveal my identity, I simply stated that my shop, has inspected, repaired, restored, and tested with Nitro Ammo, 100's and 100's Of sets of Composite Barrels, without a single failure. The clerk was speechless. I thanked him for his time and left.

Brad

Nice to know that there are still a few uninformed dinosaurs out there who's ignorance can be taken advantage of.

"never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump"

W C Fields

not my way in most of life - but in these cases it fits

Having a pulse was all that was required for Cabe11as to hire someone when they first came to CT. The guy in the gun library told me the difference between a 1911 and a 1911A1 was that the 1911 was only intended to shoot black powder, and the slide could blow off the frame and go through my face if I fired a modern .45ACP in one. I bought the gun, but I still can't find any BP ammo for it.

Always surprising since if they at least did a cursory read of the background of the gun they would find that most were made after nitro powder became popular, proofed with nitro and likely have never shot black powder throughout their existence.

I keep saying the next time I get that lecture, I am just going to tell the person I like living dangerously.

At the last local gun show that I exhibited at, I had my CH upgrade on display as a work in progress and I heard one guy say to who ever he was with "Why put all that work into a gun and not be able to shoot it because of the Damascus barrels?". Clueless.

.......and the prices on composite barrel doubles were just increased at yet another gun shop :)

There is good and bad in all perceptions. About 20 years ago, the Damascus fear allowed me to buy some very fine guns at great prices. Now, most cognoscente have awakened to the truth. That's where the bad comes in. As Pete has nicely phrased above.

Bachelder: You'll get your due for tipping off that clerk some day! (LOL)

Well....the way I see it you came out on the short end of the stick. You let your need to make a point get in the way of your buying a couple guns. I would have signed a paper that stated Martha Washington played forward for the Knicks if that's what they felt the needed.