Help with an oddly marked Parker

[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.

[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.