I am getting my first damascus barrel gun. This prompted a reread of an article from DGJ from Fall of '06 by Sherman Bell that conducted an experiment with old barrels, mostly damascus. The 15 set of barrels that he tested were resilient to over 18k psi of pressure, despite some of them being badly pitted.
I am not trying to advocate high pressures. I see no reason for high pressures unless you look for some significant advantage that you can't get otherwise.
His info, while not to be generalized (although I don't see the point of doing the experiment) raises two questions for me:
1. If the 15 guns that went through the testing, showed undamaged barrels (and they did) it would suggest that we are overconcerned by the damage resulted from the use of modern shells to the old barrels. By his limited testing, damage to the barrels does not happen even at high pressures.
2. If the test is inconclusive, especially for your own particular gun, (unless you put her through the proofing procedure) what good does it do to have a set of barrels proofed? Two high pressure shells will not show what is going to happen on that "n" round when the gun will blow up. As M. McKintosh mentioned in his Technicana, you shoot the gun with all kinds of loads and all of a sudden, it explodes using your regular light clay round.
I am surprised that there is no data bank in regards to predictions of how a set of barrels will behave when newly manufactured or after 50 years of regular use and abuse, being pitted or bulged or in the best shape ever. Maybe there is such a thing, but I am not aware of(like many other things). I think that with this much time and history behind us there would be some gathered knowledge to help you better predict what is going to happen to your barrels when you shoot the gun the "nth" time.
Maybe this knowledge is in the folklore, of the saying that "damascus barrels are bad omen" or other kind of popular housewife tale?
Gentlemen, any hard data to scientifically predict anything in the line of old damascus barrels? or any barrels for that reason?