Well I think I've received one answer, at least in regards to the use of gauge mates. That answer is basically "round peg, square hole." In speaking with the owner of Gauge Mates, he discussed with me that there is no pressure drop because there really is no air gap between the bores and the gauge mate. He also said that the 20ga wad still seals in the bore of the 16ga barrel, meaning no resulting significant decrease in pressure. In short, a modern 20ga load doesn't sound like a good idea in a 16ga damascus barrel, although the owner of Gauge Mates stopped a llittle short of saying that himself. What he said was that a modern load using the gauge mates would be safer than using a modern load without the gauge mates, and he was clearly open to the idea of selling me a set for my purposes.
The barrels might be fine 1000 times, but any failure percentage greater than 0.00000 is unacceptable in this situation. So now I'm looking for an opinion on the RST copper #6 vs an alternative low pressure turkey load for use in my gun out to 40 yards.
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