Question on 12GA Chambers

[Gerry Addison]

Most 12 gauge Reproductions I've seen and owned have 2 3/4" chambers. I just purchased a very nice 2 barrel set that is unusual in a couple of ways. First of all the 26" barrels are choked Q1 & Q2 which I love and secondly the 28" barrels are choked Improved cylinder and Modified which I also love and have only seen one other time. These barrels have 3" chambers and are stamped this way on the barrels. I have seen this before and always on the steel shot specials, but does anyone know why some do and some don't have the 3" chambers and how many were built with the 3" chambers. I'm thinking this set is very unusual.

[Kenny Graft]

Hi Gerry....You have a scarce set, but not all that uncommon. These were standard offerings that could be ordered. It makes for a nice set, the 28" ic/mod set with 3" chambers can be used with steel shot, then switch to upland game with the open chokes of Q1/Q2. If your gun sports double triggers that would make it very scarce and way harder to find. Parker Story lists that 1800 DHE 12ga. guns made. Most of the hard to find sets are in collections of the original buyers who had special ordered them. We are now seeing some scarce models coming available as the original owners are aging. I just acquired a double trigger 20ga. A1-special from a Ohio estate/widow. These guns came up on gun broker about two weeks ago at very fair prices. The A1 was one of three very hard to find guns that were special orders from the factory shipped to Jaques in Ohio. I am still looking for a BHE-20 or 28ga. with double triggers for my collection of PR guns. They are really a great gun for the money! Thanks all....... SXS ohio

[Joe Bernfeld]

I have one, 28" IC/Mod 3" chambers, SG/Splinter/DT, 14 3/4" LOP. No idea how many were made that way. I love it, although lately I've been using my 20 ga. Beretta 687 EELL Diamond Pigeon (DT 15" LOP by Rich Cole) for duck hunting. Although aesthetically I prefer SxS doubles, I shoot the Beretta O/U better than any other shotgun I own.

[Donovan Kirkpatrick]

Gerry, We now know there are at least three.

[Scot Cardillo]

Hope I am not breaking proper etiquette by contributing to this as my first post but thought I would chime in.

I have one virtually identical to the specs cited by Joe Bernfeld

12ga - SG - DT - 28"(IC/Mod) - SPL - bbl marked 2-3/4 & 3"

Bore = .735

Actual choke dim / L = .0115 R = .008

14-3/4 lop / 7# 3.5oz (Butt = 3# 10oz. - Fore = 7.6oz - bbl = 3# 2oz)

New as the day it was made.

~Scot

[Joe Bernfeld]

Hope I am not breaking proper etiquette by contributing to this as my first post but thought I would chime in.

Your only breach of etiquette was not posting pics. No pics, it didn't happen :p!

[Bob Jurewicz]

Scot's gun is a duplicate of mine. Now we know of 5. Pics of mine have been posted before.

[Gerry Addison]

But the neat thing about the one I just got is the original owner wanted to make the gun "right" so he sent it to Bachelder's and had the case coloring done correctly, had the borders on the checkering mullered, and had it refinished. The gun looks super now! I only wish it had double triggers.

[Scot Cardillo]

It are true Joe..lol

Here you go..
37692

37693

37694

The grain straightens quite nicely through the grip and it is a satin factory finish in lieu of bowling alley shine. I have put a small amount of lead down the tubes but alas - the gun does not fit me quite right for the type of instinctual shooting that I do :draw:

I'm on the fence about a slight bend to add some cast which would align the rib properly as I prefer to just learn to shoot the darn gun as delivered more often than not.

Gerry - those 26" bbls choked proper are nice and it sounds like a very nice set you have. Out of the 5 detailed your tally for the set seems to still remain all of 1..nice!

[Kenny Graft]

MD....now that's some great wood!...Im drawling....drip,drip

[Gerry Addison]

I thought I would take a couple pics and show you the work Bachelder did on this gun. I think they did a very nice job. Notice the Mullered borders, real case coloring, and even a gold plated trigger. He must have also adjusted the trigger as this gun has the best trigger pull of any single trigger Parker I've owned.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/esetter/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zpse69a56a7.jpg (http://s138.photobucket.com/user/esetter/media/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zpse69a56a7.jpg.html)

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/esetter/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zpse92c51db.jpg (http://s138.photobucket.com/user/esetter/media/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zpse92c51db.jpg.html)

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/esetter/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps53c4586a.jpg (http://s138.photobucket.com/user/esetter/media/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps53c4586a.jpg.html)

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/esetter/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps7788c265.jpg (http://s138.photobucket.com/user/esetter/media/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps7788c265.jpg.html)

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/esetter/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps8141a51f.jpg (http://s138.photobucket.com/user/esetter/media/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps8141a51f.jpg.html)

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/esetter/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps6cb45a00.jpg (http://s138.photobucket.com/user/esetter/media/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps6cb45a00.jpg.html)

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q257/esetter/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps94f36194.jpg (http://s138.photobucket.com/user/esetter/media/Parker%20Repro%2012/file_zps94f36194.jpg.html)

[Kenny Graft]

Brad does great work...just look at those colors...(-:

[Gerry Addison]

Thanks, wood is not spectacular but has great grain flow through the wrist which I always look for.

[Joe Bernfeld]

Checkering borders and colors look great! I wonder why he didn't clean up the checkering though. It would much improve the factory job. Evens out the spacing and points up all the diamonds. I really prefer the oil finished wood!

Here's a pic of the 28 ga. I fixed that broke in half through the checkering. Unfortunately, even if you blow the picture up, I'm not sure you can see how much better the checkering looks. I wish you could download larger files here for more resolution.

[Greg Baehman]

I've got two 12-ga. Repros with 28" barrels, both are stamped "12 GAUGE 2 3/4" but both of these guns have 3" chambers. They are both Sporting Clays Classic models which were advertised as having 3" chambers despite the "12 GAUGE 2 3/4" stamping on them. This gets me to wondering if most, if not all of the 12-ga. 28" Repros have 3" chambers, even though they may have been stamped with only 2 3/4"????

For those with 12-ga. 28" Repros with only the 2 3/4" stamping, have you actually measured them to verify?

[Gerry Addison]

Joe, I've never done checkering but I'm not sure you could even out the spacing on the checkering. That has always been one of my major dislikes about the Repros is the poor checkering. Some rows are very well spaced and some are not. If they were recut even I think it might really mess things up, but then again I'm not a guy that does checkering. At least it is hand cut and not done with a laser, which I hate.

[paul stafford jr]

MONEY WELL SPENT, on the boarders and case colors , I always wondered why they never got the boarders wright , there not hard to duplicate , but doing after the fact, that's a different story. brads shop does fine work.

[Joe Bernfeld]

Joe, I've never done checkering but I'm not sure you could even out the spacing on the checkering. That has always been one of my major dislikes about the Repros is the poor checkering. Some rows are very well spaced and some are not. If they were recut even I think it might really mess things up, but then again I'm not a guy that does checkering. At least it is hand cut and not done with a laser, which I hate.

Gerry, I've cleaned up the checkering on most of the guns I've owned and it's possible to make it look much better, although sometimes not perfect. It also allows the wood figure in the checkered area to show up better. Parker Reproductions in particular seem to have many flat topped diamonds and the lines often aren't cut to the edge of the pattern. The spacing can often be improved a lot.

[Richard Skeuse]

Gerry A . The gun looks great. My only comment is there are 2 screws that are out of alignment. The front screws on both sides may have been switched on reassembly. they should be horizontal. try switching the right for the left. Thanks

[Gerry Addison]

You are right Richard and I hadn't noticed that. I will check them and let me ask you can these be changed without taking the gun apart?

[Joe Bernfeld]

You are right Richard and I hadn't noticed that. I will check them and let me ask you can these be changed without taking the gun apart?

Sure. Just be sure your screw driver fits properly! The upper screw in the picture looks a little off, but the lower one doesn't look bad. It just may be that the one needs to be tightened a little. Be careful!

[Gerry Addison]

I've got the drivers, just wanted to be sure if I pulled those screws completely out that something wouldn't come apart on the inside and require me to disassemble the gun. Thanks for the help, Gerry.

[Dean Romig]

I always wondered why they never got the boarders wright , there not hard to duplicate

Actually, the borders of the checkering were done correctly according to the sample late Remington Parkers that Tom Skeuse sent to Japan as templates for the Parker Reproductions. The late Remington era Parkers did NOT have mullered borders... however the Remington Parkers DID have a diamond in the points of the borders that are unfortunately not represented in the Repros.