Greetings from the Land of Lincoln

[Mike Watson]

Hello everyone, My name is Mike Watson with Watson Arms.
I'm a part time gunsmith and full time gun nut. Most of our wild birds here
in Illinois are gone, so like many other places we are stuck with the preserves.
A few years ago I started on a quest to collect AND SHOOT 16ga. doubles made by the Great American double Makers such as Fox, LC Smith, Baker, Ithaca, Lefever and of course Parker ! I rounded up decent low end examples of all the rest, and waited and waited and waited for the right Parker to come along. I knew Parkers were are the best ! So a few weeks ago I bought a DHE 16 ga. From gunbroker that looks to be fairly honest. Serial 134521 The recoil pad is shot and the stock in dinged up pretty good, but other than that it's not to bad. My main concern is the chokes my galazan gauge shows Full and Extra Full . Not my first choice for preserves, if I open the choke on this gun, will I kill it's value ?

[Bill Faulk]

Hi Mike,
All three of my Parkers are tight and tighter..
I use the Spreader loads from RST or Polywad in 2.5" length.
They work just fine on anytarget or bird under 20 yards in #8 or #7.5s.
Bill

[StubTwist]

Do you reload?

Just get Polywad spreader inserts one gauge smaller than the shell intended. For your 16 order the 20 gauge inserts.

I use Polywad for my mod / extra full 12 gauge to shoot skeet, sporting clays, in the field, and works great.

My opinion... Keep the bores original.

http://www.polywad.com/spredr-inserts.html

[Jim DiSpagno]

You will devalue the gun with respects to the original configuration. That gun would letter to those specific chokes IF the records exist. Any Parker in the original configuration is surely worth more than one that has been altered with the exception of alterations/additions done at the Parker or subsequent Remington plant. If you are going to keep this gun for a very long time, then by all means, do what you think is best for you, but keep in mind that you would be better off going in an alternate direction. Just my humble opinion. Congratulations and good luck with your new Parker. This is an addiction. Jim

[Mike Watson]

Thanks so much for the advise , will look up those shells and wads !