Parker Gun Cases

[Bruce Day]

These are original Parker hammer gun cases with accessories.

These are some of the best condition ones that I have seen, after all, they are over 100 years old. The detailed photos and measurements should enable a skilled woodworker to make a reproduction case.

[ch]

Thanks Bruce. What kind of wood would be your choice?

[Toothsmith]

Bruce,

New member Eric Baker here. Thanks for the great photos and information. I have a friend who's a master cabinetmaker that I've recently infected with an interest in old double guns. Could prove fortuitous!

Do you know the barrel length of that nice D grade Lifter? Mine has 26" barrels which appear uncut but the serialization book lists it with 30".

[Bruce Day]

These cases were of black walnut. The inside block parts were of a lightweight, light colored wood of some type. Poplar, basswood, sycamore, maybe. The original cost was $10, a bit more today.

These cases belong to a friend and while I would love to have one for my only hammer gun, I don't. I am reasonably sure the lifter action 11ga has 30" barrels. Almost all these hammer guns, unless a rare small bore, were either 30" or 32". A 26" barrel on a hammer gun would raise a question for me about whether the barrels were cut. The easiest indicator is the matted rib ending but matted ribs first came in 1886, after most of the lifter action guns. A person would need to look at the choke constrictions and the barrel end keels. A person can look at the TPS records to see the rarity of 26" barrels, more were made in 28" and most were in 30".

These guns were almost always choked around .035 and Parker chokes that tight were four inches long. A 4" bob would result in a cylinder bore, so a lifter with a cylinder bore is highly indicative of a cut barrel or reamed choke.

But, we have experts here, and I'm not one of them.

This is my only hammer gun, a C Bernard 30" top action hammer, and maybe making a case like these would be a winter project. A fine woodworker can see that the work is on the crude side and a person with the right tools could produce better dovetailed joints and use better fittings , but these cases are as made by Parker.

Bruce Day, Parker beginner

[Toothsmith]

Bruce,

What an amazing hammer gun!! I'm certainly not going to feel sorry for you for only having one! You've skipped the preliminaries and gone straight to the "grail". I pulled off a similar coup in regard to British hammer guns. A famous gun "celebrity" made the above comment when he saw it.

Here is a photo of the muzzles of my D grade lifter. The right bore is .755 and the left is .760 both having 8 to 10 thousanths of constriction. Kind of hard to measure as aren't quite uniform anymore. Wall thickness is around .0030'.
Probably cut but if so long ago as the wear looks consistant with the rest of the gun.

Thank you for your comments.

[Bill Murphy]

Wall thickness maybe .030 ?

[Bruce Day]

Eric, after seeing the muzzle shot, they look uncut to me. Do you have a research letter on the gun?

[Toothsmith]

Sorry one too many zeros in the wall thickness.

I don't have a research letter yet. Just mailed the requests for the two 16 gauges. Need to space these things out.

I do have a 12ga 0 grade top lever gun that according to the research letter was originally produced with 32" barrels but was pulled from stock and the barrels shortened to 28" at the factory to fulfill a customer order. The stock was also shortened to 13.5" and refitted with DHBP at the same time.

Perhaps this is the same type of situation.

[Jeff Mayhew]

Thanks for the pictures Bruce. I think I shall make one of these cases. How are the handles constructed? I see a surface of rolled leather that is presumably stitched on the underside, probably with a "core" of rope or twine. Is it just the leather that is attached to the case, or is there some other support underneath that bears some of the load between the handle itself and the flaps screwed to the case?

For handles I'd expect something a bit more substantial on a case carrying a heavy load, but I suppose it explains why many of these old cases are missing the handles.

Would be tempting to go with dovetail joints, but apparently box joints (squared tongues/grooves) were the standard on these.

[Bruce Day]

I think it would be good enough to make a close replica, but one with reinforced handles. Perhaps a brass plate on top of the leather.