I read somewhere that the M-97 Damascus bbl option was $20.00. That could explain the rarity, as that was a lot of money on a 15 dollar gun.

What a wonderful set of photos!

It is my undertanding that all American shotgun twist and damascus barrels were made abroad, either in England or Belgium, usually Belgium.

Are all of the barrels shown therefore, foreign made, or did we start making some on our side of the pond?

Here you go Steve
https://docs.google.com/document/edi...iXR8p4S6OIN1bA

Drew: Thanks for the info. I'm about half way through it. My wife just came in and told me to "take the garbage out, the big cans." So I have to quit reading for a while and it is nearly cocktail hour.

So far, however; I find evidence that like me, others have stated that Americans did not make damascus/twist barrels. Fact is we did, at least for a while and here and there. Smith and Wesson, Remington and Parker made fine barrels for at least a year and a half. Parker gave it up figuring it was too expensive when they could be imported from Belgium, their labor costs being Lower than ours. Even with the 45% tariff (later lowered to 10% and then free) barrels from Belgium were less expensive and apparently their was no concern over their quality.

I find it interesting that when damascus barrels are mentioned the comments are about the beauty of the design and not their relative strength when compared to other barrels of the era. Apparently it was assumned that twist/dam barrels were plenty strong. The problem was the expense and skill required to build them.

Gotta go, the garbage beckons.

Steve