I have becoem the owner of an old Damascus barreld double. It is a Keystone Interchangeable, in 12 ga. I know better than to try to shoot it wiht smokeless( my gunsmith even said black powder loads could be risky in a damascus barrel). BUT he also suggested a set Briley insert tubes to take it down toa 20 or 28 ga. Has anyone tried this and what does every one think of the idea? The gun itself is in rather good condityion and it locks up tightly even after all these years. It looks kind of cool too wiht the hammes and all

go here:

gunshop.com

You can not condemn all Danascus. Much of it is perfectly safe to shoot with the proper smokeless ammo.

Need more info on your gun to know what it is. Read the tutorial on the site above and then post the appropriate information. Do not post until you have read the FAQ's and gathered the info. And take some good pictures and post if at all possible.

I have never heard of a "Keystone Interchangable," but would say the odds are that it was a very cheap Belgian hardware store gun if I were forced to take a SWAG with no more information availible. If so, it likely would not hold up to much shooting. Guns rarely blow up without a barrel obstruction, but they can shoot loose in an amazingly short time.

and for the record, very few "gunsmiths" in this country are qualified to make sound decisions on double guns. I have heard of very few who would not pass judgement, and have known very, very few who are qualified to do so.

Most are very uneducated on the subject and just repeat the mantras repeated over and over in gun magazines.

I, along with my brother, uncles and friends have shot thousands of rounds of low brass out of many damascus barreled shotguns, both brand name and cheap ones. We never had a single incident with them. Did we just get lucky? I doubt it. JMO for what its worth. If the gun is in sound condition I myself would not think twice about shooting it with low brass. I think there are far too many nice shotguns hung above the fireplace wasting away. No, I'm not a gunsmith...just a guy who has lots of experience shooting these guns and never had a problem while doing it.

if by "low brass" you mean something made by the big American manufacturers, then they are loaded to the same pressure as "high brass" shells. As stated in my earlier post, it is very unlikely that a gun will blow up without a barrel obstruction, but shooting American "low brass" shells in them will lead them to an early grave. They will shoot loose and have tremendous, unecessary, wear.

Proper shells can be found in this country these days, and many low pressure loads are availible to reloaders. These lower pressure loads have the exact same "power" as the low brass American shells, but they don't beat the old doubles into an early grave.

Mark,

it's now http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=...4196bdcd4ff3cacd51c8

I had it linked to "doublegunshop.com" home page, but I still call it "gunshop.com."

It is the first web site I found when I got my own computer, and that was in March '97.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom02:
I have becoem the owner of an old Damascus barreld double. It is a Keystone Interchangeable, in 12 ga. I know better than to try to shoot it wiht smokeless( my gunsmith even said black powder loads could be risky in a damascus barrel). BUT he also suggested a set Briley insert tubes to take it down toa 20 or 28 ga. Has anyone tried this and what does every one think of the idea? The gun itself is in rather good condityion and it locks up tightly even after all these years. It looks kind of cool too wiht the hammes and all

I have a Cogswell & Harrison outside hammer damascus double with 20, 28, & .410 Briley Tubes. It has taken more than its share of quail, pheasants, doves over the years. If you send it to Briley, they will determine if it is safe to do - at least they used to.