I have been looking at an old british made shot gun with damascus barrels recently. The dealer is reluctant to sell me the gun as it is damascus and he doesn't want to be liable if there is a failure and i get injured. There are no gunsmiths i can ask to check the barrels out and looking online for what to look out for is a fools errand eg. "damascus barrels lose strength every year even if they are not shot".

The gun is in excellent condition with no corrosion. The barrels are not pitted, dented, rivelled or corroded. The only thing i can do is measure the barrel wall thickness, but can i use penetrant dye as used in weld tests, or ultrasound to find cracks or rokes ?