When you do "Try this at home"

[Bruce Day]

Its humorous in retrospect, but I had an early G grade, strong as could be, but I had heard all these old clubhouse expert tales of damascus unraveling, all the horror stories only to have some other old timer pull me aside and tell me that was just BS and they were strong, but some of the guys were so adament in their third hand hearsay stories opinions that they knew it all.

So I actually dressed up in a winter coat, motorcycle helmet and face mask, heavy gloves......it was sweltering August......waddled out to the trap line, loaded up with out of the box Rems, held the gun outstretched with one hand, and it just went pop. Did that a few more times, the gun hardly recoiled, took off all the sweaty clothes and shot a round of trap with all the experts standing a significant distance back.

I believe that heavy, like #2 frame damascus barrels resonate less than fluid steel barrels and feel more solid, although that is only subjective.

So provided the barrels are thick enough, I don't worry about it anymore.

Send photos of you dressed like Ralphie.

[Roundsworth]

My technique may raise questions of safety, but it works for me. I set up my portable shooting table, place the gun barrels in a sandbag rest, crouch behind the table, cup the gun butt in my left hand, duck my head down as far as I can, reach up and fire with my right hand. The gun will jump a wee bit, but my left hand takes most of the recoil.

I do this with guns after subjecting them to careful disassembly, cleaning and inspection. I wear magnifying glasses while doing all this to make sure I don't miss anything obvious. I may be throwing caution to the wind with this procedure, but I like to think I approach the whole thing in a serious manner.

[Bill Murphy]

The proof test on any new to me Damascus gun is the fact that it has probably been fired hundreds of times with Super-X loads over the years. My Manson wall thickness gauge is test #2. I would like wall thickness in the mid thirties in the thinnest parts. Usually, the actual thickness is more than that.

[Roundsworth]

Bill,
I certainly do agree with you on the 'Super-X' theory! It would be interesting to know how many 'Super-X', or equivilent, loads have been run through my composite barreled 10s.