Buying Damascus Barreled guns

[B. Dudley]

When looking at guns with Damascus barrels with just the eyes, the things to look for are self explanatory and are kind of true with fluid steel barrels as well. How much pitting is there, are the ribs tight, debts and how bad are they, and check for cracks/splits.

Be Leary of any 100+ year old gun with perfect bores if the outside condition of the gun is poor.

Putting in the bores always looks deeper than it actually is.

Beyond that you can only tell so much without the proper equipment to measure wall thickness and bore diameters.

And once you get to measuring enough barrels you get used to seeing what is typical on barrel sets. There are many who are very conservative and say that barrels with less than .030-.035" of thickness should not be shot. But if that were the case, you would be discounting a lot of barrels that are as they were when built new. And then you have the other side of the coin which is British proof standards which may look awfully thin. But they are known for building very light barreled guns.