My Father and Uncles all believed the Damascus barrel warnings which they first began seeing on shotgun shell boxes in the early 1930s was a desperate attempt by the manufacturers to sell new guns during the Great Depression. They didn't buy it and my Grandfather's 1890 PH-Grade 12-gauge remained in use until my Uncle Howard quit hunting. My Father shot Damascus barrel Remington AE-Grades until he quit hunting at age 80 after the 1987-8 season. I still have the 1895 vintage 12-gauge but the 16-gauge, serial number P136036, was stolen out of his home and I'm still looking for it.

"Cactus" Jack and his 26-inch barrel Model 21s is a big cause of the whacked American doubles we see way too often.

Fred, why don't you PM your S/N and if I have a record on it, I'll let you know the barrel steel. It could have been either depending when made.

Saw a gun today on Gunbroker that had a letter that indicated it was Titanic steel gun and barrels were labeled that way, but in actuality it was a Damascus Gun. Factory mistake.

Which particular cactus jack are we referring to? There are many that come to mind.

No one wants to be the one that gives the "go-ahead, it's safe" answer to whether or not to shoot any antique rifle or shotgun. My 2 cents: I trust good quality Damascus over ANY fluid steel of the same era. That said, any man made mechanical contraption can fail. You have to use common sense. If you're shooting a turn of the last century gun. Do a little homework, and find out what minimum barrel wall thicknesses are. Have your gun looked at, measure the bbl walls, make sure lock-up is good.
Then find a source for quality low pressure loads, or roll your own.

I have a 28 gauge DHE where in the order book the barrels are 28" Titanic Steel and in the stock book the barrels are 24" Damascus.

The research letter confirms the 24” Damascus barrels.

The gun came to me with the documented twenty-eight gauge 24" Damascus Steel barrels.





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I know mistakes are made in the books but how prevalent are mislabeling barrels. One out of a hundred or a thousand or something more or less either way.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/781432647

It no longer surprises me to see these conflicts in recorded data.






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During the Damascus barrel era Ithaca had been marketing their guns as guaranteed against bursting , but Ithaca had been losing market share. A new president came in and promptly changed marketing to tout the new improved fluid steel barrels and that only fluid steel would not burst with so called modern shells. He authored the well known dangerous Damascus letter and appeared at gun events talking about dangerous Damascus and urging that owners buy new Ithaca guns.
The Ithaca president was personable and well liked and other makers followed his lead.
The change in marketing from Damascus was guaranteed against bursting to dangerous to use occurred within months.

And in doing so did an unfathomable disservice to all owners and manufacturers of guns with “twist or Damascus” barrels.





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