Sleeved Barrels

[Tommy Coker]

Looking at one of the Parkers i am aquiring and on one of the barrels it says "sleeved" It is a D grade with what i think is damascus barrels. What does this mean and what does it do to the value of a gun? Also a couple of the guns i am picking up have had the stocks shortened and then the original peice put back on (it looks as if professionaly done). How much does this hurt the collector falue of a fine Parker?

Thanks

Tommy

[Ed Blake]

Sleeving is the process of cutting barrels off slightly beyond the chamber mouth, and putting new barrel tubes on. In this case it was done probably to rid the shooter of those "dangerous" damascus barrels. The more legitimate reason is the original bores were too pitted to shoot safely and sleeving was the solution. Can you see a fine line on the barrel walls just beyond the chambers? That's where the new tubes were put on. At least your gun says sleeved, some do not. Are there English proof marks on the barrel flats? As far as value, I would not pay much if I even wanted such a gun. There are plenty of original D-grades out there for something like that to be worth much at all. Wood extensions are great bargaining points on shooters depending on the grade. Can't give you a % there. That's up to you.

[George Lander]

Sleeving of the barrels on a D Grade Parker cuts the value in about half IMO, although it makes a fine old gun safe to shoot with modern ammo. Cutting and rejoining the stock does about the same IMO, although as pointed out, does not adversely affect the shootability.

Best Regards, George

[Dean Romig]

Cutting a stock to make it fit the young shooter and then later refitting the original piece back on doesn't bother me much or certainly not as much as sleeving the original Damascus barrels.

[Tommy Coker]

Thanks guys.

Tommy

[Bindlestiff]

What do you think Teague process using liners does to the value?

[Dean Romig]

Robin, how many times have I...... oh, nevermind.

[Dean Romig]

Actually, on a high grade, high condition Parker which is a beautiful gun but unsafe to shoot, I think the $4K investment in Teague liners would elevate the value of the gun by possibly the value of the investment over what the value of the gun would be without the Teague liners.

[Autumn Daze]

Dean, Here is some food for thought. A gun that is a High grade,high condition gun in my opinion would have to be that way both aesthetically and mechanically. So to my way of thinking a gun that had unsafe barrels falls out of that category.

My feeling is that a gun that has sleeved or lined barrels whether it's a Parker or a Purdy has to suffer some in the money department.

Could there be exceptions?....well if a buyer just had to have it....

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Dave Suponski

My feeling is that a gun that has sleeved or lined barrels whether it's a Parker or a Purdy has to suffer some in the money department.

Suffer in value from what it would have been worth had the barrels been perfect?..... Absolutely