Josh,
Many years ago Damascus and twist steel barrels were considered unsafe to shoot with modern smokeless powder ammunition. This is an American phenomenon as the British are still shooting their properly proofed Damascus shotguns. There were warnings on ammunition boxes about not firing modern ammunition in Damascus or twist barrels. Plus many old guns were not properly cleaned and cared for so the barrels rusted causing pits in the steel in some cases making them too thin to be safe. Sometimes barrels burst from being fried with an obstruction in the barrel. The cure in the case of better more expensive shotguns was have new barrels of modern steel fitted or to sleeve the original barrels with modern steel barrels by cutting the original barrels off at the front of the chambers and fitting new barrels in to the breech portion of the old barrels. Not too common in this country as most of the old guns were not valuable enough for either procedure. Someone thought enough of this your gun to have it sleeved for what ever reason so it could still be used.
Hope this helps explain your gun.
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