But that's not a finished barrel fitting. It wouldn't look right IMO.





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It appears there are two ways to correct this fit.

1) re-contour the doll's head to flush and re-engrave/blue.
2) remove the rib, take metal off the bottom to achieve fit, then reattach the rib/blue.

Either way, it will cost money. The issue is how much he cares to spend. For a bit of proud metal.

Nice. Good call - that hadn't even occurred to me. (work on the underside of the rib). Either that or, grinding the flats (assuming there's material) seems to be the proper way 'technically' because it maintains elevation poi in a manner consistent with the design. No way I'm removing the rib though. Besides, while I'm certainly not in a hurry to spend money, the notion of a one-off rust blue job doesn't sound horrible to me considering how gorgeous barrels turn out following such work. The 'technically' lower poi resulting from the blending of the dolls head frame>rib would be negligible, I would think..

I too have a PR barrel issue and I'll start by asking this question; If the barrels lock up tight and also sit tight on face what's the purpose of the dolls head? Here's my issue; bought 0 gauge 16 gauge Krieghof barrels from a gentlemen on this Board to fit my 20 gauge PR. Took gun, original forend and barrels to Gunsmithing Ltd. to be fitted. In my own assemblage of the barrels to the frame the dolls head was about 1/16" or so short and not touching the back. I asked Mitch what could be done about the gap and he said it posed no risk to shoot and there would just be that little visual gap. I believe if I had asked (and paid to do it) he would have come up with a solution, but he thought it was no big deal so I have left it alone. Probably put a few hunded shells through it with no problem. Next spring I'll be looking for a Parker DH/E 20 gauge on an 0 frame and will most likely have the 16 gauge barrels fitted to this gun and will address the dolls head issue then. A few more questions, are PR dolls heads available from anyone? Thinking that if new are available in the white or blued the dimensions might be larger and could be made to fit. Does removing the screw on the dolls head remove it without screwing anything else up? Sorry but don't have a photo to post at this time...away from home on vacation. Thanks.

Tom, it's the front edge of the dolls head providing the functional lock of the barrel to the standing breech. By design it literally intends to hold the barrel tight up against the breech instead of separating under load and, relying solely on the under-bolt. Your gun is safe. ‘Theoretically’ your dolls head is not as robust compared to a dolls head that fully occupies the pocket machined in the frame simply because there’s less material but, it will not fail. The aesthetic would bother me. A good gunsmith with welding skill could likely build material so that the space can be eliminated but that would also require some extra work contending with the dovetailed plate that stops your ejectors. Adding material to the pocket in the frame would be a mistake in my view. A savvy gunsmith could make a new dovetailed plate that would occupy the space without having to weld any material at all ‘if’ there is enough of a gap there to allow a degree of material to work with (kind of a catch 22). And, of course, if you were willing to pay the hrs it would take to complete the tedious task - trust me, gunsmiths are underpaid. The radii x2 at the rear of the extension would be tricky to blend in order to make the repair invisible - engraving would help to hide imperfection if deliberately executed by a good eye.

Maybe someone else will chime in and tell you that it's far less complicated..I dunno', I've never done it and there are plenty that have. It's a shame you have a gap there.

The 'doll's head' provides no function at all. On an ejector gun only does it serve a function - that being a housing for the ejectors to slide in and to facilitate a mount for the ejector stop plate.

Competition shooters of old sometimes ordered their Parkers without the doll's head rib extension and it was eliminated from the Trojans around 1920 or so.
In fact, all Parkers were made without the doll's head rib extension until sometime in the early to mid-1880's.





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While I agree that the dolls head is marginally functional considering one could cut it off and shoot safely, what do you make of the Greener cross-bolt Dean?

I know nothing about the Greener cross-bolt system. My focus is almost entirely on Parker shotguns... that is enough for me and pretty time-consuming in itself.






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Ask any classically trained double gunsmith and he will tell you that these doll's heads, Greener cross bolts, Scott bolts, etc., exist primarily for psychological reasons. Virtually none of them are fit up to engage surfaces for locking.

In plain language, they were fashion-of-the-era sales gimmicks. And as Dean points out through the Parker Trojan example, generally unnecessary.

The one exception I can think of offhand is the original Westley Richards A&D box lock doll's head. It engaged a sliding top bolt to lock the gun... not the frame. Later, the Purdey double underbolt was added, which made the top bolt superfluous .

I appreciate the input gentlemen and believe me, I have great respect for your knowledge - somehow I feel like I might be opening up a can of wa on myself..lol. I sincerely just want to understand because I’m not seeing it. I have to wrap up a few things so I'll have to come back to this thread. I hope you gentlemen are willing to take me to school on this one.

Here goes..

Sorry but, the classically trained double-smiths are just flat wrong..lol :duck: