BH 87337 what to do with it??
 

I bought a bunch of parker parts from a gentleman this weekend and in the rubble was BH 87337.

This poor old fella has seen better days leaving the factory as an original straight grip - 28" - top lever - hammerless - Damascus gun. I got all the important stuff with it so now I just have to figure out what to do. The wood can be saved and the stock has an original pad with widows peak/nib. On the shield it is inscribed "Paratus Sum" Latin for "I AM Ready" or "To Be Prepared" with a Griffin and banner. The receiver and trigger guard can be welded and fixed I think. The forearm latch and tip may or may not need replaced. The barrel looks like it was used to stir a pot of salt water soup. Trigger plate has 3 stags on it, the receiver has pointers on the left and setters on the left. How hard will it be to find Damascus barrels in 28"? What do you think????

I am inclined to think that any B grade should be saved? Maybe $3K to $4K as a budget?

What a find Brian! But... A lot of work!
The best thing you have going for it is that it is a legit grade 5 and that the stock is salvageable, by the looks of it.

The barrels are toast though which is too bad. But, they are standard Damascus (single D). Not fine Damascus (double D). So, finding a set of replacement barrels will be a lot easier.

The significant pitting can be remedied with some work, but all the metal work would mean needing to recut most all the engraving, from scratch likely.

Your budget question of $3k to $4k would likely be all or mostly spent on engraving.

That gun looks very similar in terms of engraving to my BH 87712, not surprising I guess since they are so close. Mine has steel barrels though!

What kind of steel Greg? That serial number is too early for Acme or Titanic, unless it was sent back during the days of the 'dangerous Damascus' scare for replacement fluid steel barrels.

There is a potential for your original barrels to be sleeved with fluid tubes. This would help preserve the fitting, serial numbers, etc. They would, however, need to be blacked. It isn't cheap, but your whole project is not a budget minded notion. The man for sleeving is Kirk Merrington.

I personally would never consider sleeving a BH just for the reason of keeping serial numbers. A set of Damascus barrels could be fitted well enough and numbers re-stamped to where they would appear as original.

Mine shows to be the first fitted with steel barrels. It's too far back in the safe for me to drag it out right now but I think they are Titanic steel.

The more I look at the pics above, it is very similar. The stock especially.

Yup, 87712 is an early Titanic gun.

Unfortunately it looks like a money pit to me if full restoration was considered---what a shame. I guess I would at a max find a new set of barrels and forend iron put it back together and enjoy it for what it is. Now if it was a Fox-----:corn:

Greg, is your BH the one with the extra long forend that was on the market a few years ago?