1894 shotgun help appriciation

[Laguna442]

Thank you Researcher... I believe my 1894 to be an A grade gun . The receiver is plain. So I am assuming the receiver color is the plain ''silver'' color that it presently is. I am guessing the barrel is Damascus as it has patterned rings around it. I have looked it over and see no ID letters any place. It does have automatic ejectors. The barrel is a grayish color. Under the forearm I can see no ''protected'' original color as one might find under the forearm of of a model 12 rifle. I have always heard that Damascus barreled guns should no longer be shot. Is that the consensus of this forum?

[paul harm]

Treat the damascus barrels like any barrels when deceiding if they're safe to shoot. One thing to consider- shotguns shells back then only had about 7000psi, not like todays 9 to 12000psi. Either buy low pressure shells or reload them yourself. Treat your old guns with respect. Yea they'll handle more pressure, but you'll just shoot it loose. I own and shoot every week eight different damascus barrel shotguns [ four of them Remingtons ] with no problems , but do it with handloads of around 6500psi. Good luck- Paul