First Parker (Trojan)

[Joe from MO]

I believe the 2 5/8 chambers on the trojans were intended to handle the 2 3/4" shells.

As long as you don't go shooting steel, or super heavy loads, you should be all right shooting most normal modern 2 3/4" shells. I Shoot the nobel sport 20ga low recoil 2 3/4" shells from my 20 ga Trojan. And, I've killed turkeys with 2 3/4 pheasant loads as well with that gun.

Congrats on your first Parker, Trojans are great hunting guns.

[Dean Romig]

Back in the sixties I hunted pheasants and ducks tith a Trojan 12 and always shot 2 3/4” shells and these often were magnum loads.





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[Alfred Greeson]

Congrats on a great little Parker, lots of fun waiting for you with that one!

[David Champa]

She shoots! Feels good, a touch heavy for woodcock cover, but really look forward to pheasant season with this gun. Got a few boxes of shenk shells 2.5” # 6s on the way. Curious to see how these are, was nice to find 2.5” shells outside of RST

[Alfred Greeson]

I have a 20 Trojan that was used a lot and it even has an Ithaca star burst pad on it but it is one of my favorite guns and fits me like I ordered it. It even had a bad dent in the choke area of the right barrel which I had removed and you can't tell it was even there. Hard to beat the performance or price of a well used Trojan. No one ever heard a pheasant or duck yell "Look out he's shooting a Trojan!" but I wouldn't have been surprised. Talk about what if it could talk!

[Alfred Greeson]

Now time to start looking for your 20 Trojan

[Dean Romig]

My BIL Jamie got to Grouse Camp in VT before me and just sent me this pic…


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[Mike of the Mountain]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

Back in the sixties I hunted pheasants and ducks tith a Trojan 12 and always shot 2 3/4” shells and these often were magnum loads.





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Dean, the wood was 50-60 years younger. Guaranteed it's dried out more by now. The magnum loads of our youth are not friendly to the stocks on these vintage guns.

[Mike of the Mountain]

David, given that your barrels are solid, keep the dram equivalent to 2 3/4 or less, 1200 FPS or less and 1 oz or less and you'll be fine shooting 2 3/4" out of that Trojan. It's the wood that takes the punishment when we shoot snotty loads in these guns.

[Researcher]

Here are the Remington era chamber specifications from the Specification sheets that were reproduced in The Parker Story.

Remington era Chamber Specifications.jpg

No one can tell you over the internet what ammunition may or may not be safe in a given gun. But, a 12-gauge 2-frame Parker in solid condition should handle 1 1/4-ounce progressive burning smokeless powder, high velocity lead loads and has probably in its life digested plenty of Super-X or Remington Express.