Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

sawed off shot gun

jwharding
I've got an old Riverside Arms 12 gage shot gun with rabbit ear hammers and was thinking about cutting it down and making a coach gun out of it.
The gun now has a 32" barrel and is as tight as it was the day it was sold. The only thing I'm worried about is the damascus barrel. Will it handle bird shot? Thats about the only thing that I would shoot in it.
JW
0

Comments

11 comments

Date Votes
  • jwharding
    I never got a chance to tell everyone, thanks for the info on the old gun. the only reason I wanted to cut it down was the fact that it it would be a little more interesting than a stoeger or some other mass produced shotgun. Any way thanks for the info.
    JW
    0
  • duckhunter
    I would not shoot this gun without a barrel liner.
    0
  • zink
    NOT even with reduced black powder loads. Damascus barrels allowed powder residue into the twist that can't be cleaned. It corrodes from the inside of the barrels.

    Lance
    0
  • wpage
    Best to use it as a wall banger.
    0
  • mark christian
    You can go ahead and cut it down for use as a decorator, but it is too risky to consider shooting it.
    0
  • MP
    Lots of miss-information, take the gun to gunsmith who understands Damascus.

    I've been shooting Damascus shotguns for over thirty years. If you or others have damascus guns educate yourself about them and forget the old wife's tails.

    A shotgun should have a load that develops the pressure that the original gun was designed for, black or smokeless the gun will not know the difference.
    0
  • MP
    You made your point in the first post so this one was uncalled for. Simply say that you don't agree, make your points and leave it at that. Zink was only trying to be helpful and did not say or do anything to you that rated your response. I am really going to be cracking down on this sort of thing because I don't think it is good for the boards.
    0
  • beantownshootah
    The accepted wisdom on old Damascus steel shotguns is that they aren't safe to fire with modern 2-3/4" smokeless rounds, which develop much more pressure than the older black powder rounds.

    You could do this if you put new barrels on the gun, or put in a bore insert to convert it to a different gauge, though going either way is probably going to set you back significantly more than the value of the gun.

    Whether or not older Damascus guns are safe to fire with lower pressure black powder rounds (or modern equivalents) is debatable. Some are. . .some aren't. That's going to vary on a gun by gun basis.

    But even if you might be able to get away with this, I really don't see a good reason to try in this case. Why cut down a nice condition nostalgia-type gun in good shape, even if it doesn't have much collectors value?

    If you want a coach gun for actual use, why not just sell or trade yours for a modern coach gun that can fire anything you want out of it? They're not terribly expensive; you can probably find a decent used one for about $250-300 or so.
    0
  • Tailgunner1954
    The only thing I'm going to ask is weather it is a true damascus barrel (welded construction) or is it a "fluid steel" barrel that was acid etched to look like damascus? IOW is it real, or fake damascus.

    A lot of the lower end shotguns had a damascus pattern etched into the surface to make it look like it was of a higher grade of firearm.
    0
  • Grasshopper
    Welllllll,,,,,If I had one " as tight as new",, I sure would not cut the thing down. Get another side by side with modern iron and keep the old Riverside in its original condition..not an answer,,but a suggestion/
    0
  • Bill Jordan
    That's the problem with "Old Wives Tails."
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity