Twist is correct. I sent off for the letter back in 2018. Parker #35790 was delivered to Simmons Hardware Co. in St. Louis Mo. in June 1884. According to the letter it was returned to Meriden in August of 1899 by a Chas. Juhre of Rogers AR. for a new rubber butt plate, clean and re-blue the barrels and repair the action and locks and to dress up the stock. All for a whopping $8.00.
Charles Juhre was a businessman in Rogers and his home is on the national registry of historic places. He built several buildings in the downtown business district. At some point one of his kids married into my mothers fathers side of the family. We have a bedroom furniture set from the house as well. I first remember seeing this old "Jed Clampett" shotgun in my Grandfathers gun cabinet as a young child in the early 70s. At the time I was all about 1911's and WW2/modern military guns. He had about 10 or 11 guns as I recall. A Browning Auto 5, Some sort of over-under shotgun, a Remington in .22-250 with a sporter barrel and white line spacers (ugh!) a Ruger single six .22, a pump .22 Win Mod. 61 and a Winchester Model 12? pump shotgun I believe. My Grandfather passed in 2000 and left nametags on all the guns for the grandkids. My Grandmother finally sold the two story house in 2018 that she was living in by herself at the age 97. I was the oldest living Grandkid and had always had my eye on the .30-06 with the Weaver scope because it was like a military sniper rifle. As I have aged and acquired guns and new tastes I was interested in sporting guns like Rigby's and double rifles. Since I was the oldest I told the other grandkids that I would take the Parker, I am probably the only real gun guy in the bunch and had heard of Parker Bros.
I knew the gun was in pretty rough shape and recall my grandfather and father stating that old guns like it were unsafe to shoot.....period. First thing I did was google parker Bros. and found this wonderful forum. I think I have read almost every thread and even gone back into the archives. My biggest concern were the barrels. They have some pitting that at first looked severe but after closer inspection and reading looked not so bad. I have miked feeler gauges and looked at .025-.030" on my calipers and finally purchased a gauge from Brownells. I have not been able to measure anything less than about .032" even with my lack of skills so I believe the bores are safe and they do not appear to have ever been honed. The forcing cones are still very prevalent.
The stock head was oil soaked so I removed it and soaked it in acetone for what seemed like a year. The cracks I drilled into and used Gorilla Glue and cut off tooth picks as plungers to splooge the glue into the cracks. The DHBP looked like it had not been fitted and had a small chip on the toe. The stock toe had a small chip missing and a larger chunk broken off that was still with the gun, it glued up nicely. The chip in the toe, I filled with acra glas. the stock, when screwed up tight had a visible gap in between the rear face of the receiver, so after much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, I took the plunge and put some bedding material on the stock head between the receiver after using clay to fill all the small nooks and crannies. I believe you could hear my B-hole un pucker the next day when everything came back apart. Another two spots on either side of the front of the trigger plate and behind the receiver were rotted and nasty looking so I filled them with glas as well.
She may look more like Granny, But I still like to think of her as Ellie Mae.
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