I've shot dozens of Damascus double guns over the years and never had a single problem. One Fredrick T. Baker gun my wife gave me when I graduated college I shot for years (the only gun I owned for many of those years)before I learned it had Damascus barrels (its barrels had been blued years before I got the gun and the pattern did not show thru the later finish). Learning this gun had Damascus barrels so many years later certainly gave me a fright; but if any gun has ever been "proofed", this would be it! As FYI, I've only witnessed one barrel explosion (thank God!); and it was not pretty, as it removed a fair portion of a man's left hand. That barrel was an Armor steel 12-bore LC Smith barrel; but there was nothing wrong with the barrel itself, a fibre base wad had lodged in the left tube about 8" from the breech. Forensic examination revealed a very evident bulge where the wad had been lodged, and damage to the barrel set itself was catastrophic; the explosion produced a gaping split open about 8" long in the left tube, the auto ejector fore iron/splinter forearm was blown off the gun and the wood forearm reduced to shattered bits; and the barrels were bent approximately 6' to the right and about the same distance downwards.
