What is it?

[J. Melvin Moore]

Anyone looked at GB 549635707, thoughts?

[Mills Morrison]

Looks like an early GH grade with sleeved barrels and an altered stock.

[J. Melvin Moore]

Look at the serial numbers and location.

[Mills Morrison]

The serial number is a total mystery.

[Bill Murphy]

The gun is a mess.

[Mills Morrison]

Bill is right. Sometimes you just wonder what people were thinking

[Rick Losey]

its an exercise in creative writing

i like the claim of "a blank oval intentionally factory made on the rib" - where someone - likely the sleever -milled out the word DAMASCUS

[Brian Dudley]

I dont know why someone would have removed and changed all the original serial numbers.

This gun was previously listed at $3,500. I sent the seller a note which nicely losted all that i saw with the gun since he didnt seem to know much about it. I also advised him he was asking WAY more than hevwould ever get.

I was glad to see that he actually thanked me for my info and relisted it at a penny start and no reserve.

[Dean Romig]

Removing or altering the serial number of a firearm is a Federal felony if I'm not mistaken.






.

[Jack Kuzepski]

Dean,

You are correct in that thought and not mistaken.

Jack Kuzepski

[Rick Losey]

Serial numbers were not required prior to the 1968 gun control act
So I wonder if that was a federal crime prior to that

And if it was - did it date to the 1934 act

[Jay Oliver]

Looks like some was thinking "No one will buy this if they know it has Damascus barrels"

[Bill Murphy]

Jay is correct. However, I don't believe anyone back in the fifties through the seventies was mislead by those amateurish attempts to fake Damascus guns. There were even more uninformed and undereducated gunsmiths out there in those days than there are now, if you can believe that. I watched collectors who should have known better, cannibalize high grade Parkers by the dozens. Why, you may ask. Well, a Damascus AH grade gun in average condition was worth about $175. If someone thought the same gun could be safely shot, it was a $200 gun. If the same situation existed in DH grade guns, the figures were about $100 and $150. A properly sleeved and marked Lefever Arms Company job of Parker sleeving is the only legitimate "fake job" of the sixties other than some UK and Belgian sleeve jobs. Most guns with faked up ribs were not sleeved at all. They were just blued very dark and sold as fluid steel guns. It was a black day in shotgun collecting and we are still sorting out the residue of faked up guns today.

[Dean Romig]

Serial numbers were not required prior to the 1968 gun control act
So I wonder if that was a federal crime prior to that.


I believe that if a firearm has factory serial numbers, regardless of the year of manufacture, to remove or alter them is still regarded by the ATF as a crime.






.

[Mills Morrison]

I would not like to find out the hard way, for sure. It is a crime against Parkers, at a minimum

[Rick Losey]

I believe that if a firearm has factory serial numbers, regardless of the year of manufacture, to remove or alter them is still regarded by the ATF as a crime.
.

Yes. Now it absolutely is

But my point was ----was it a crime if this was done 75 years ago?

I know I have heard of faked colt SAA's out there

and wasn't there a faked Bo Whoop getting passed around

Not everything illegal now has always been so

[Jeff Davison]

I have seen an otherwise nice original Parker that a federal agency took a grinding wheel to and removed the serial number.