Is a damascus barrel the same as a rifled barrel?

Answer 1

No, they are different.

A rifled barrel is a solid bar of steel which has a hole drilled through it down the center. The hole is spiral cut with lands and grooves (called rifling) such that when the bullet is fired, the bullet contacts the lands and spins as it moves down the barrel. This spinning stabilizes the bullet to improve range and accuracy.

A Damascus barrel starts with a stack of many different kinds of steel bars. The stack is hammer welded (pounded to the point where the steel flows together) to make a flat sheet. The sheet is wrapped around a steel bar to form a shotgun barrel and hammer welded to make it complete. When new, Damascus barrels are beautiful with the many colors in the steel. They don't age well, though, and often will have subsurface corrosion which weakens them to the point where they shouldn't be fired, even with the proper black powder ammunition. They should NEVER be fired with smokeless powder ammunition.