[Dean Romig]

Art -

When I first became interested in the Parker-made Laminated Steel barrels I had originally believed they were restricted to the higher grades, such as grade 3 and higher. But I have since discovered this not to be the case. In the serialization book I count about 201 guns with the L designation. But we see among those serial numbers many, many gaps of missing serial numbers. One that I know and have handled personally is serial number 14081 - a beautiful 16 gauge D-grade Lifter, missing from the Serialization book but definitely with Laminated barrels.

In any case, while tabulating the guns in question with Laminated barrels in the years 1877, 78, 79, 80 and 81 I count two Grade 5 guns with Laminated Steel barrels, five Grade 4 guns, thirty-seven Grade 3 guns and amazingly, one-hundred, sixty-six grade 2 guns and the very last one I counted in 1881 was a solitary Grade 1 gun with Laminated Steel barrels.

A gun with the water table stamped with both a D and a 3 is simply two characters indicating the grade... not the barrel steel type.

It is my supposition that any guns with a serial number higher than 16,000 that has Laminated Steel barrels isn't anything strange but rather, the Laminated steel barrels were simply languishing in stock until either discovered or needed.

I believe that an estimate of some 100 guns built with Parker-made Laminated Steel barrels is way off the mark. I believe that taking the 201 guns I found in the serialization book with a L designation and extrapolating for missing serial numbers and the possibility of misidentifying the barrel steel in the factory records, the number could be as high as 250 or so.





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