So we have Ithaca in the mid-late 1960s advising against shooting modern loads in Damascus guns and I am sure other companies were doing the same at this time. When would the earliest letter of this type exist? five years after they quit making damascus guns, 10 years, maybe more? I think it would be interesting to chart out when all thr major manufacturers in the US stopped selling Damascus guns.
Additionally it would be interesting to chart the evolution of the shotshell from year to year to compare what rounds were being sold when the manufacturers transitioned from offering Damascus barrels to only steel. I guess my question is something like which came first, the chicken or the egg? Who really drove the train on the change from Damascus to fluid steel barrels, the gun manufacturers or the ammo manufacturers? I tend to think it was the manufacturers simply because the ammo companies wouldnt put the cart before the horse and make new rounds that supposedly couldn't or shouldn't be shot in the guns that were readily available.
Personally I feel both world wars forced and trained manufacturers to supply large volumes in short timeframes and that made it so the slow hand made Damascus wouldn't ever cut it again from a production standpoint, especially after we learned to mass produce our own fluid steel barrels. (Not to mention every GI getting out of the service had a new need for speed and firepower after shooting machine guns - remind anyone of the current trend in AR-15s?).
