Damascus Made for Smokeless

[Bruce Day]

Here's some early documents showing that Parker intended smokeless powder use in damascus guns.

1891 . Two photos of an order page showing a CH Bernard to be targeted with Wood's powder, an early bullk smokeless.

1897 A series of photos from the 1897 Parker catalog showing lifter action hammer guns, top action hammer guns and hammerless guns, and the catalog paragraph explaining the use of smokeless powder in all Parker guns.

[Kensal Rise]

Bruce:
Simply more proof that the no-smokeless-in-Damascus sham was -- and is -- just that: A marketing crock to get consumers fearful of expensive Damascus guns and to buy more cost-effective/profitable fluid steel barrel guns.

Best, Kensal

[J.B. Books]

Remington advertised their Model 1894 double as "Guaranteed for Nitro Powder" around the same time. A powder we know today as "Unique" was first made available in 1898 but was named "Infallible".

[ch]

Neet stuff Bruce great research. Is there any hammer guns known with tapered chambers Peter Parker has brass chambers I checked Bruce. ch

[Drew Hause]

As did Hunter Arms c. 1895

[Bruce Day]

Looks like all the top makers were switching to nitro by the early to mid 1890s. This was 120 years ago. Yet we see GI and GA ads today for top maker damascus guns and saying "for blackpowder use only" and people come here asking if they can shoot them with nitro. Most of these were designed for nitro and likely have never shot anything but.

Austin Hogan told me how a person can tell if a gun has been used with black. Of course I didn't know. He said to look for pits. It takes only one day of hunting in wet weather for pits to start after shooting black.

[J.B. Books]

I would expect to find the move from black powder to nitro powder (dense or bulk) was swift once nitro was introduced for the simple reasons of less to no smoke, less barrel fouling and ease of cleaning. Pits may be the result of corrosive primers rather than BP as there are pitted barrels on guns built long after nitro powders were dominant.

[AmarilloMike]

I have been told by an avid flintlock shooter that black powder was not the cause of pitting. He says the fulminate of mercury primers were the culprit. He has a collection of old flintlock guns, most with no bore pitting. The percussion guns are the start of widespread pitting of bores according to the flinter.

Best,


Mike

[Kensal Rise]

Mike:
Your information is spot on. While black powder fouling does draw moisture if left uncleaned from the bore, it was the evil fulminate of mercury in the percussion caps and early smokeless primers that did the real harm.

With modern primer mixtures, pits are banished. Simple as that.

Best, Kensal

[jimcaron]

it is true that Fulminate of Mercury will create a hygroscopic salt after detonation, but the really nasty compound in older primers is the potassium chlorate. This was added to make the flame created burn even hotter. This is even MORE hygroscopic. On top of this it has the added curse that when wet, the potassium ions released will cause metal to rust even faster than sodium. This explains why all the "old Timers" like my uncle would rush home to clean their guns after a day of shooting.