Help with an oddly marked Parker

[Billy Thomas]

Hello Parker cognoscenti,

I'm a dealer in Alabama. Recently, I came into possession of a bunch of old shotguns as part of an estate - one of which is a Parker, serial number 158014. I don't know a ton about Parkers, but it appears to be, at least in the frame, an authentic Parker GH (I don't have the year of manufacture).

However, there is something odd about this gun. As stated previously, I don't know much about these shotguns, but I think I remember something about Belgian (or Vickers by way of Belgium) barrels being fitted to these guns as replacements for the damascus originals. That certainly appears to be the case here, as the barrels are clearly marked "ARMAF Co. LIEGE," with the expected variety of Belgian proofs. What is weird, however, is the "PV" proof on the water table, and that the barrels have been serialized to the shotgun.

How would this have happened? I understand that some American smiths would fit replacement barrels, but in order for there to be PV proof it would have had to have been proofed in Belgium. Was there a professional service at the time to have one's Parker sent to Belgium to have the barrels fitted, matched, and the gun re-proofed? Or was this a gun purchased new in Europe, proofed later, and then brought to the US? Is there any way to track down the original disposition of the gun?

I've attached pictures of the relevant components below. I've learned enough about this kind of thing to know that it's better to ask the experts before accidentally misrepresenting an item.

[Dean Romig]

Interesting GHE for certain. Oddly there is the extractor stop screw in the lug where the gun clearly has ejectors. could it be that the barrels were sleeved rather than the entire barrel set replaced at Vickers? More questions than answers with this one...





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[B. Dudley]

The gun was re-barreled and proofed accordingly in Belgium. Most aftermarket barrel sets I have seen with ejectors have the lower retaining screw like this.

[Dean Romig]

I wonder why.... do the makers of the barrels not have the ability to cut the slots in the underside of the doll's head and install the stop plate?...... or do they simply see the weakness of Parker Bros. design and engineering?





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[Chris T.]

I think from a manufacturing standpoint, the stop screw is a much easier/inexpensive way to accomplish the same goal.

[Bill Murphy]

The stop plate in the doll's head is definitely a weakness in design in an original Parker. This has been discussed on this forum before. The stop screw, as on the gun in question, is a simple fix for this design flaw.

[Billy Thomas]

Thanks for the information!

I wonder if this was a commercial service for owners, like a mail order service to have one's "obsolete" shotguns re-done in the 1950s, or if this was a commercial enterprise buying up old Parkers and Smiths and shipping them over and back to make a nice profit. I do understand how how this happened - while some of us today would curse the former owner, I certainly empathize with someone whose father bought a gun in 1915 and they, by 1955, had inherited a gun which was rapidly verging towards being unshootable. We're spoiled nowadays by our firearms - a high-grade Remington 1100 made in the 1980s is just as shootable today as it was then. Either way, there might be an interesting research project in commercial rebarrels for an interested party.

I didn't pay much for this gun, so the barrels hurting the value is no big deal. I'll just chuck it up onto Gunbroker for cheap and let it ride.

[Bill Murphy]

The USA companies that sent guns to Belgium advertised in sporting publications and would rebarrel a double shotgun for less than $200. That's about the whole story.

[Dean Romig]

A lot of these rebarrelling jobs would never have even been considered if the American sportsmen hadn't been duped into believing their cherished doubles with Twist and Damascus barrels were no longer safe to shoot. I place a lot of the blame for this on the gun manufacturers and their cohorts, the powder manufacturers, who jointly spread the myths.

Modern powders and the cheaper to manufacture fluid steel barrels spelled the end of the beautiful to look at composite barrels.






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[Drew Hause]

https://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubb...&Number=631801

The lettre annale is the lower case greek 'xi' for 1956