Sleeved Barrels
 

Looking at one of the Parkers i am aquiring and on one of the barrels it says "sleeved" It is a D grade with what i think is damascus barrels. What does this mean and what does it do to the value of a gun? Also a couple of the guns i am picking up have had the stocks shortened and then the original peice put back on (it looks as if professionaly done). How much does this hurt the collector falue of a fine Parker?

Thanks

Tommy

Sleeving is the process of cutting barrels off slightly beyond the chamber mouth, and putting new barrel tubes on. In this case it was done probably to rid the shooter of those "dangerous" damascus barrels. The more legitimate reason is the original bores were too pitted to shoot safely and sleeving was the solution. Can you see a fine line on the barrel walls just beyond the chambers? That's where the new tubes were put on. At least your gun says sleeved, some do not. Are there English proof marks on the barrel flats? As far as value, I would not pay much if I even wanted such a gun. There are plenty of original D-grades out there for something like that to be worth much at all. Wood extensions are great bargaining points on shooters depending on the grade. Can't give you a % there. That's up to you.

Sleeving of the barrels on a D Grade Parker cuts the value in about half IMO, although it makes a fine old gun safe to shoot with modern ammo. Cutting and rejoining the stock does about the same IMO, although as pointed out, does not adversely affect the shootability.

Best Regards, George

Cutting a stock to make it fit the young shooter and then later refitting the original piece back on doesn't bother me much or certainly not as much as sleeving the original Damascus barrels.

Thanks guys.

Tommy

What do you think Teague process using liners does to the value?

Robin, how many times have I...... oh, nevermind.

Actually, on a high grade, high condition Parker which is a beautiful gun but unsafe to shoot, I think the $4K investment in Teague liners would elevate the value of the gun by possibly the value of the investment over what the value of the gun would be without the Teague liners.

Dean, Here is some food for thought. A gun that is a High grade,high condition gun in my opinion would have to be that way both aesthetically and mechanically. So to my way of thinking a gun that had unsafe barrels falls out of that category.

My feeling is that a gun that has sleeved or lined barrels whether it's a Parker or a Purdy has to suffer some in the money department.

Could there be exceptions?....well if a buyer just had to have it....

Dave, I understand what you mean and I agree however, there are exceptions to every rule.

Let's take, hypothetically, an extremely nice, high grade Parker that might have been put away without scrubbing out the bores after shooting black powder all day and it sat for perhaps several decades until an heir found the gun. He appreciated it for what it was and in an uneducated way, honed all the terrible pits out of it but by doing so, rendered the barrel walls too thin to shoot safely. A beautiful Parker reduced to wallhanger status. Would such a gun warrant the investment of Teague liners? In my opinion, a resounding "Yes".