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bkmkok
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Posted: Tue Jan 1st, 2008 02:45 pm |
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| Could anyone tell me when parker started making a 3" gun. Also,is the gun marked any where on the water table or barrels? Any information would be helpful. Have found a 3" VH 12 and want to make sure it's original. Thanks
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Dave Noreen
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Posted: Tue Jan 1st, 2008 03:16 pm |
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Parker Bros. would always chamber guns for longer shells on request, and many early Pigeon guns were chambered for longer shells. Factory loaded longer shells in those days carried the same loads as regular shells, but had more and better wadding.
The Super-X 3-inch 12-gauge shell with the 1 3/8 ounce load was introduced in 1922. While A.H. Fox Gun Co. brought out the Super-Fox and L.C. Smith their Long-Range or Wildfowl guns for such shells, Parker Bros. never really offered a special model. With their array of frame sizes and barrel weights they didn't really need to.
Parker Long Range -- In the 1929 "Flying Geese" catalogue the Brothers P had this to say -- "Magnum, Super, and variously named guns about which so much is now being written are not a new development in the gun makers' art.
For the past twenty years Parker Brothers have made guns to handle heavy charges of powder and shot, giving good patterns at long range. Recent improvements in powder and by shell manufacturers have served to make the Parker Long Range gun even more effective, so that today the Parker built and bored to secure the full power of modern loads with which one may confidently expect to bring down game at distances a few years ago considered impossible, is up to date but not new.
Parker Long Range guns are built to guard the user against abnormal recoil. The weight of the barrels is so distributed that the gun handles the heaviest loads with comfort. The purchaser of a Parker Long Range can rest assured that he will receive a gun, easy to handle, sufficiently heavy and properly bored to shoot the heaviest loads for the killing of wild fowl at extreme ranges."
The 1937 Remington era catalogue adds -- "Ordinarily Parker 12 gauge guns are chambered for shells up to and including 2 3/4 inches. These guns can be furnished with special long range choke boring to give more effective results at extreme ranges. 12 gauge double barrel guns, with the exception of the "Trojan" are also available with 3 inch chambers for use with maximum long range heavy loaded shells. So chambered, Parker guns are guaranteed to handle these shells properly."
"Parker 10 gauge guns are regularly chambered for 2 7/8 inch loads, but are also available with 3 1/2 inch chambers for use with maximum loads. No extra charge for a Parker Long Range Gun. Guns should never be used with shells longer than those for which they are chambered. See table of complete specifications on page 34."
On very late Parker Bros. guns the grade, gauge, and chambering were stamped on the left side of the barrel lug.
Around 1935 with the introduction of the Winchester Model 12 Duck Gun, Winchester/Western began offering the 12-gauge 3-inch magnum load with 1 5/8 ounces of shot.
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bkmkok
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Posted: Tue Jan 1st, 2008 03:22 pm |
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| Thanks for the information. I don't think it's probably original since the guy said it was made in 1899. Think I will pass on this one. Thanks again,Keith
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Pete Lester
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Posted: Tue Jan 1st, 2008 05:09 pm |
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How do you know it was not sent back to Parker to have the chambers lengthened?
I doubt I would use a 3" shell in it if it were mine but if everything else is in good shape and the price is right I would buy it. In my opinion short of having the box and hang tag a VH is a shooter rather than a collectible. If others think different they will tell you.
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Bruce Day
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Posted: Tue Jan 1st, 2008 06:14 pm |
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If the comments of others that I have heard for years are correct, its not unusual to find a 2 frame V 12 with chambers locally bored to accept 3" shells. They are stout guns and probably not harmed by the occasional duck hunter's 3" load. Check the stock for cracks, but otherwise the gun is meant to be shot anyway.
I saw a documented 3" 12 ga VHE and it was on a 2 frame. Course that doesn't mean the barrel contours are the same, but I've seen lots of those modern heavy pheasant loads go through a V grade and those 3" shells can be about the same as the heavy 2 3/4 loads.
Last edited on Tue Jan 1st, 2008 07:07 pm by Bruce Day
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Bruce Day
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