After spending a considerable part of my early adulthood chasing deer in the woods and swamps with deer dogs, and using buckshot exclusively on them, I determined that 30 yards is about it for effectiveness. Sure, many have been killed with it at much longer ranges, but I've seen some spectacular failures with good hits on deer and lack of penetration, even with big blue whistlers like 00.
I've never used it out of damascus, but don't see why there'd be any significant difference between it and fluid steel barrels, as long as the pressures were in line with what we feel is safe for damascus.
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