[gorknoids]

As some of you know, I have an old Damascus barrelled 12 Ga side-by-side, and showed it to a friend of mine who is an avid claysports guy and dove hunter. He has a friend in their Parker club that shoots Damascus barrels with light powder loads, and suggested that I look into it. I know about the reasons for not shooting standard smokeless loads in Damascus, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience in shooting light smokeless (Pressures comparable to black powder) through them.
A full scoping would be performed first, and a Zyglo of the exterior of the barrels for cracks or separations.

[stalkingbear]

Even if they are getting by with it, I still wouldn't recommend doing it. The reason is even low pressure smokeless loads have a vastly different pressure curve than blackpowder. The smokeless don't explode but does burn and produce pressure (gases) extremely fast whereas blackpowder explodes but at a very slow rate of speed, thus producing less pressure overall.

If you want to get away from loading blackpowder I would suggest 1 of the blackpowder substitutes suck as american pioneer powder, blackhorn 209, 777, or the like. They'll load with the exact same measured amount as blackpowder, still produce the smoke, but don't build up fouling and attract moisture like blackpowder and pyrodex will. Neil

[gorknoids]

Thanks Stalkingbear. I'm 100% smarter on this topic than I was a little while ago! I won't try to shoot this thing until I feel 95% sure that I won't blow the barrels up, and I'm 105% sure that it is safe.