Lifter Dilema

[Dean Romig]

And then there are documented 11 gauge Parkers.

Charlie price had documented 112 factory 11 gauge guns, all but one having four-digit serial numbers... that one is ser. no. 46740
this one, 16513 because it was rebored at a later date, may have missed the records...? JMHO

Maybe the barrel shop at Parker Bros. thought removing that additional .015" would compromise the barrel walls...?



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[78CJ]

Thanks again Chuck for the consise letter!

There was considerable deliberation as to whether or not the 12 gauge barrels had been altered to 10 bore. I don't remember the exact measurements but we concluded that in order to have taken them to 10 bore the original BWT would have had to have been in the neighborhood of .080. However, I was surprised to find that when I got home and weighed them that they came in at exactly 3 pounds. Unstruck weight was 4.4.

It seems we will never know. The only thing we discussed is whether or not there would be more information in the ledger book columns that were not able to be copied originally. It seems odd the "make 10" would not have included a length.

Thoughts?

Ryan

[Dean Romig]

Again, my thought of 11 gauge seems to be supported by your measurement of .760”


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[78CJ]

Just remembered I have a 10 Gauge snap cap. It's a 10 Gauge.

[Dylan Rhodes]

I have a documented 11 gauge and 10 gauge caps don’t fit. For what that’s worth.

[ArtS]

Interesting thread. In addition to the 12 ga guns coming normally with 11 ga tubes, the 10 ga came normally with 9 ga tubes. This according to The Parker Story. I have five pre 1880 10 ga guns and a similar number of 12 ga guns of the same period. Every gun I own measured exactly to the 11 ga and 9 ga specs, although I have had a few of them cleaned up. I have no doubt that the gun was originally a 12 ga with 11 ga tubes and was rebored by Parker to as close to 10 ga as they thought safe. They obviously did not get to the full bore dimension but did rechamber.

An interesting side discussion is whether they targeted 9 ga or 10 ga. They ended the practice within a couple of years of the gun being made. The date of the conversion isn't listed unless I missed it. I would presume they would do the conversion work under their current system of using correct bore sizes. If it had been attempted when the 9 gauge tubes were the norm, they wouldn't have been able to come close to the standard.