Over bored barrels

[Dean Romig]

I found the chart of known 11 gauge Parkers and in fact, no known 11 gauge Parkers were made on the top-action hammer guns. And they effectively stopped making the 11 gauge in 1877.

If anyone would like a copy of this chart shoot me an email at dsromig@aol.com and I'll send it as an attachment in a reply email.

Also, "Parker Bores and Chambers" written by Austin Hogan but researched by Price, Hoover, Furnish and Hogan, can be found in Parker Pages, Vol. 18, Issue 4 (Fall 2011) for an explanation of many of the things being discussed here.

This is another good reason to contact Mike McKinney for a copy of the Parker Pages Digital Archive.






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[Mills]

That would make sense.

[Cold Spring]

I have tapered reamers to open chokes and just recently did a VH 12 gauge Parker s/n 2218xx for a friend. I’ve done this work for a while now on many maker guns and can tell a factory bore by its uniformity and surface finish. Right bore on that Parker was .742” dia and choke .713” for 29 points of constriction = 3/4 choke (I-Mod). Left bore was .732 with choke .694” for 38 points = Full choke. Both bores and original chokes appeared “factory” to me. I’ve seen mismatched barrel bores occasionally and chalk it up to the maker wanting to salvage a barrel tube that was damaged during the bore finishing operation, and then the shop overbored to clean up the scratch, gouge, chatter marks or whatever. Just my take here gents.

[Craig Larter]

I own a CHE 12ga #3 frame that the factory letter states 2 7/8" chambers and made for #1 shot. It is over bored in both barrels to .740/.742 and chokes of .040. I believe the barrels were overbored so #1 shot patterned properly. Any opinions on my theory?? My other possible explanation is when the gun was returned to "take dents out of barrels", the factory polished the bores by .010 and recut the chokes.

[charlie cleveland]

that's a nice gun and I really like guns with long chambers....charlie