Despite anecdotal reports
Experts on Guns and Shooting, George Teasdale Teasdale-Buckell, 1900
http://books.google.com/books?id=4xR...8C&pg=PA373&dq
On the subject of steel v. Damascus, Mr Stephen Grant is very clear, and much prefers Damascus for hard working guns. He related an anecdote of one of his patrons, whose keeper stupidly put a 12-bore cartridge into his master’s gun without knowing that he had previously inserted a 20-case, which had stuffed up the barrel. Fortunately, no burst occurred, but a big bulge, which, however, Mr Grant hammered down, and
the gun is now as good as ever.
We now KNOW that pattern welded tensile strength is a bit more than half of early Fluid Steel and modern AISI 4140 chrome moly. Yield strength is also much lower, so pattern welded barrels are likely to exhibit elastic deformity at lower pressures - ie. bulge before bursting.
3 issues:
1. We have no NDT technique that can establish that the bulge did not cause micro-fractures in the pattern welded laminate.
2. Obviously the chamber is the location of the highest pressure.
3. A chamber burst could cause a life-threatening or life changing injury. Barrel bursts
down the barrel are usually splits, or look like the top of an opened tin can, and are much less likely to send shrapnel flying than a chamber burst
Just not worth the risk,
to me, and we must also consider the risk to a bystander - friend or family member. And in the civil suit it will be very easy to find an expert witness that will testify that the shooter exhibited "reckless disregard" by using an "intrinsically dangerous Damascus" barrel gun with a known chamber repair.