Another Damascus Horror Story...

[Dean Romig]

A proof house here? Unless it was mandated by the gummint I don't think we'll ever see one. I for one, would never subject any of my guns, Damascus or fluid steel to the extremes that a proof house might. I don't think in the ten or fifteen years I have remaining to shoot and hunt I could ever equal the stress using 7,500 p.s.i. loads I put upon my guns that one visit to a proof house would. Thanks, but no thanks.

[10 bore]

i will be proofing some guns on jan 1st

[Old and Reliable]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

A proof house here? Unless it was mandated by the gummint I don't think we'll ever see one. I for one, would never subject any of my guns, Damascus or fluid steel to the extremes that a proof house might. I don't think in the ten or fifteen years I have remaining to shoot and hunt I could ever equal the stress using 7,500 p.s.i. loads I put upon my guns that one visit to a proof house would. Thanks, but no thanks.

I in part agree with George Lander, I shoot a Damascus 12 PH made in 1904- either with RST 1 oz. 2.5" shells or Rem STS or AA lite- 1 & 1/8 oz. 1200 fps or less 2 &3/4"- with the caveat that I had Master Gunsmith Brad B check it over carefully first. This is "in lieu" of a formal proof house, IMO!!

But I also am "reading into" Dean Romig's posting and if I am over-reaching, Dean please understand- BUT a Federal Proof House- wouldn't each and every gun be traced back by serial number and description to the owner who sent it in for "proof"? Could this also lead into the "tacit" gun registration and possible later confiscation the current Adm. at 1600 PA Ave- wants-

Besides the NRA American Rifleman article on the 1911-A-1 Colt and the CMOH awarded to those who used same in combat with Valor- another issue profiled Iain Harrison- former British SAS Airborne sniper- now involved in other shooting venues here- and his prized handguns, both defensive and match target- he had to turn in due to Parliament enacting such a measure after a madman used handguns to kill children at Dunblane-- Common sense, from my point of view, says few of us will saw off the barrels on a 12 Trojan and use same to hold up a 7-11 store-

Of course, we can always consider the "Plan B" brother Lester suggests- perhaps a nice widow in East Bumblebucky Heights has a 12 or 10 32" Damascus barreled Parker with a fishtail top lever that has been gathering dust bunnies under her sette. Were she to sent it to me for proper 'disposal', and just for the insured shipping costs, I would not only tip the UPS driver, but gladly enroll her in a Fruit of the Month Club or other annual gifting program- Does Harry & David still operate "out in Medford, Oregon" or like Lawrence Welk, is that now a thing of the past?

[Setter Man]

To my knowlege Paul Harm is the only one on this board with personal, first-hand, experience with failure of a damascus barrel and, I remember the facts correctly, that was due to a re-load that would probably have blown-up just about any barrel; fluid, twist or damascus. Paul, you out there?

[Bruce Day]

Paul earlier said it was an inadvertant substitution of smokeless for black, PB I think it was. That is a well known blower-upper.

[Setter Man]

You are correct, Bruce. I shot with Paul a few weeks after the incident. Nasty wounds, indeed, but he was not missing a hand nor were ay bones broken. It certainly did not effect his abiliy to clobber clay birds, that's for sure.

[Brush Buster]

You would think it could make a guy flinch a little !!!!

[Joe Wood]

Well, I blew one up years ago. Yesiree, 'bout 17 years old (back about '58) and got tired of cleaning all that old black powder residue outta my Belgium muzzleloader. Decided those old men didn't know all the stuff claimed. So I jest poured 'bout the same amount of Red Dot down that sucker. Dove came whistling by 'n that's 'bout all I remember. Never did find the breech area. Never have heard high frequencies again (kept me outta Vietnam). Never do THAT again.

Most of the guns I shoot are damascus and I have complete faith in them. Guess they'd stand a whole lot more pressure but as mentioned earlier I keep a 7,500 psi or less cap on it. Only benefit of going to higher pressures is to cycle automatics--sure don't gain anything else.

[Opening Day]

If I remember correctly, Paul's handload was PB instead of BP and he had shot the gun three times using those shells until the fourth shell which did the trick, and I think he said that pressure was around 28,000 to 30,000 psi. Now that friends is a Hot Load.....! Eric

[Bruce Day]

Joe, what, a person taking personal responsibility for something foolish he did! Should have known a Texan would cowboy up and admit it.

How is that G 16ga working out for you, Joe? Only two more months of quail season down there.

Eric, that's about 2 times the Parker proof load for the gun.

Got a bunch of us going hunting in SW KS next week. Picking up east coasters at Wichita. Annual Friends of Charlie ( "FOC'ers") event. I saw clouds of pheasants last month when I was there and hope to put all the FOC'ers on birds again, never seen so many in Kansas as last month and rivaled anything I had ever seen in SoDak even in the 70's. Last year was highs of 10 and 12 inches of snow, looks a lot better this year with this global warming thing working out so well.