Parker Gun Cases

[Bruce Day]

Eric, after seeing the muzzle shot, they look uncut to me. Do you have a research letter on the gun?

[Toothsmith]

Sorry one too many zeros in the wall thickness.

I don't have a research letter yet. Just mailed the requests for the two 16 gauges. Need to space these things out.

I do have a 12ga 0 grade top lever gun that according to the research letter was originally produced with 32" barrels but was pulled from stock and the barrels shortened to 28" at the factory to fulfill a customer order. The stock was also shortened to 13.5" and refitted with DHBP at the same time.

Perhaps this is the same type of situation.

[Jeff Mayhew]

Thanks for the pictures Bruce. I think I shall make one of these cases. How are the handles constructed? I see a surface of rolled leather that is presumably stitched on the underside, probably with a "core" of rope or twine. Is it just the leather that is attached to the case, or is there some other support underneath that bears some of the load between the handle itself and the flaps screwed to the case?

For handles I'd expect something a bit more substantial on a case carrying a heavy load, but I suppose it explains why many of these old cases are missing the handles.

Would be tempting to go with dovetail joints, but apparently box joints (squared tongues/grooves) were the standard on these.