Larry,
That really stinks about those punks cutting the barrel. I've got an old hage waffen (sp?) side by side.
It's not a damascus, and not as old as yours I'm sure, but I know my dad had it, not sure where he got it from, but it's probably my favorite old shotgun.
I've used it for pheasants and even though it's not a great fit, I seem to do ok with it. I like that it's the side by side instead of them thar new fangled overly unders....
I'd be pretty broke up if it went missing.
I'm just getting into archery and from what I can tell, it is definitely a more intimate sport. I mean, with shotguns, I can probably pick up any number of shotguns and hit what I point at, but a bow, well, that's a really personal thing that I can tell takes a lot of time and tuning in order to get it right...