Steel Shot Specials
 

Were Steel Shot Specials marked as so?

Marked SS 00xxx on the water table.
Bob Jurewicz

The Parker Story reported that the SSS was identified, as Bob said, with 'SS" as part of the S/N on the water table. In addition to the "12SS-00xxx" on the water table, the SSS that I once owned also had the same identifying stamps on the barrel flats and forend iron.

Only the steel shot specials sold through Dunns were marked SS.Parker Repro liked the idea so well they made a run of them after we sold off the guns from Dunns.I do not know how many Parker Repro built,but there were 360 SS marked guns.

Thanks all. Yes, this gun is marked SS on the watertable.

John, as has been reported and discussed previously here on the forum that the Steel Shot Specials had chrome lining through the choke area, but non-SSS standard DHEs did not.

There are some questions that I and others that either own or have owned a SSS continue to have . . . The Parker Story reported that when you were developing the SSS it was found that optimum steel shot patterns were obtained with a bore diameter of .740 and IC/M chokes at .006/.018. It was also reported that the frames were "strengthened". These specs reported in TPS seems to vary from what owners of SSSs report, such as ~.735 bores vs. .740, ~.011 Modified choking vs. .018. And we're scratching our heads about the "strengthened" frames. If you could address these variations it would be greatly appreciated in clearing up and removing some of the mystique surrounding these great guns.

The strenghtened frames was something that was discussed but was never acted upon to my knowledge.At the time everyone was freaking out over steel shot damaging their guns.Going to a #2 frame was talked about but was too expensive to implement.As to the bore diameter,the guns were specified at .740.My #26 gun which is the prototype steel shot has a .740"bore diameter and is choked .006" and .018".Variations from that would have to be factory deviations.Remember,these guns were ordered kind of on the fly.Parker Repro was bringing out a 12 and the steel shot law went into effect.We were working fast to get out a usable double gun for steel.I ordered the guns to match my gun.I did not have time to measure and check each gun as they came in.It is possible that as they learned more about steel shot the factory reduced the choke as they learned that less choke constriction was needed with steel.I have seen guns choked like mine and those with more open chokes.The same with bore diameters.

Steve- The SSS is a great gun. Get it. Or let me buy it!!

This one is marked IC/Mod

That is the way they were marked.What makes it a steel shot special is 28" barrels,3" chambers,and IC/Mod chokes.When Parker Repro planned to introduce the 12 gauge gun, all 28" guns were to be 3" with mod and full chokes and 26" guns were 23/4"with IC/Mod or Q!/Q2 chokes.We talked them into building the steel shot guns exclusively for the Jaeger division of Dunns.We ordered 350 of them and they shipped 360.I am sure they pulled standard 12s of off the line and opened the chokes.The original order guns had serial numbers 12SS-xxxx.My #26 is not marked that way because it was the prototype.We only requested the special SS mark to set our guns apart from standard production guns.