Shooting Damascus

bobguz

October 17, 2003 08:03

I have a couple of Damascus barreled SxS's I would like to shoot. Are any commercial loads available for my 12 and 16 gauge guns?

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  mazo kid

  October 17, 2003 08:51

  First off, you need to have the guns checked out by a qualified gunsmith. There are those that say you can shoot light loads, but I would use handloaded black powder shells IF.... the gun checks out as safe. You didn't say if the guns were of good quality or not; this may be a deciding factor, do you want to detract from their value by shooting them? Emery
  
  "Well done is better than well said"
  Ben Franklin

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  Bert H.

  October 17, 2003 10:02

  quote:Originally posted by bobguz
  I have a couple of Damascus barreled SxS's I would like to shoot. Be VERY carefull about that descision... and have them thoroughly checked out by someone who is competent to do so first. Are any commercial loads available for my 12 and 16 gauge guns? Quick answer... No. However, there are a sizeable number of people who shoot those old SxSs in the Cowboy Action events, and there are a few specialty ammo makers that are making/reloading them with either BP or equivalent. As mazo kid mentioned, the quality (who manufactured your shotgun) will have an awful lot to do with whether or not you should consider shooting them. The vast majority of the old SxS damascus barreled shotguns in this country are of very questionable parentage (Belgian), are essentially 100 years old, and were inexpensively made tools.
  
  
  
  Bert H.
  
  Real Men use a SINGLE-SHOT!

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  Warpig883

  October 17, 2003 12:08

  and IF a qualified gunsmith gives the gun an ok to shoot with ammo it was designed for, you need to know that just because a shotshell is low velocity or low powered does not mean is is low pressure. So a modern low velocity shell can still have excessive pressure for that old gun.
  
  If you are serious about shooting it, get very educated on damascus guns and the proper ammo.
  The below site is the best that I know of when it comes to scholars of damascus guns.
  http://www.gunshop.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi
  
  
  
  
  
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  bobguz

  October 18, 2003 05:46

  My thanks to Bert, Kid and Pig for their replies to this question.
  
  I have several such guns and I will be very careful with any and all of them.

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  nononsense

  October 19, 2003 09:33

  bobguz,
  
  I'm not sure that this will be of any help but you can consider calling Briley Manufacturing and ask them about fitting your shotguns with tubes. I did this for a friend of mine so that he could use a particular shotgun in Cowboy Action Shooting. It was an older Damascus, SXS and of some value. The tubes work great and he uses it every other weekend for competition.
  
  http://www.briley.com/
  
  Best.

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