Crowshooter:
While I detest comparing resumes, I'd say mine trumps yours by about 20 years behind a shotgun. And not just shooting rooks. What's more, I'd call a 50/50 chance of a shit a damn lucky gamble.

Nonetheless, there hasn't been more than a 15% improvement in pellet dispersion since Maj. Burrard (a far more experienced shot and ballistics expert than you or I) wrote of it in 1930. A 50-yard+ shot is still a gamble with any reasonablly loaded 2 3/4-inch 12-bore.

Finally, I've always considered a good Damascus gun perfectly safe. Only those who bought into the fluid steel sales pitch thought otherwise.