I'm just going to toss my 2 cents in here. 19th Century shooters considered damascus barrels as superior, often times, to fluid steel tubes. The transition from BP to smokeless happened gradually starting in the 1860s and was pretty much over by the teens or 20s. Still Damascus and twist barrels were prefered by many shooters of fine shotguns and they continued to shoot them and many folks still do.
Therefore, while I would not suggest shooting high powered shells in damascus barrels the RST and Polywad shells made for such guns are, if properly inspected, perfectly safe to shoot and they do the job they were intended to do.
Within the past few years researchers like Sherman Bell have studied the strength of damascus and twist barrels and have found them strong enough for standard pressure shells and I shoot my damascus Parker with confidence, but only with 8 or 9,000 psi shells, but it would probably do just fine with even more powerful loads. I just don't choose to shoot them.
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