PARKER BORE SIZE--OVERBORE?

[thaynedelange]

It is my understanding that most Parkers made before 1895 were overbored. I have two 12 gauge Parkers with twist barrels. One was mfg. in 1877 and the other in 1893. The 1877 gun is a lifter with a .748 and .750 bore size. The other is a top lever grade 1 with .751 and .752 bore size. I have heard that .750 on older Parker 12 gauge guns is common. Is this correct? I am hoping others will chime in with their actual measurements of their guns to see if we see a trend here. Thanks!:)

[Forrest Grilley]

The late Austin Hogan did a very good summary on this very topic. I believe it was published in the Parker Pages a number of years ago. There may even be some old posts on the board relating to it.

And yes, every 12 gauge Parker I have personally examined that was built in the approximate time frame you listed, have all measured around .750.

10 gauge guns of that vintage also seem to follow that configuration. Can not speak to other gauges from personal experience though.

[Dave Noreen]

Note that in this 1886-7 Chamberlin Cartridge Co. catalog that their shells for Parker Bros. guns use oversize wads --

57190

57191

57192

[thaynedelange]

Great info Researcher. Thanks! I am going to measure the bores of my other shotguns by different makers in the same time period to see what numbers they reveal. I hope others will do the same.

[Leighton Stallones]

MY 1887 VINTAGE HAMMERGUN IS ALSO .750 BORES

[Chuck Bishop]

See the thread titled Pre 1900 Bore Size dated 9/19/2014. This shows Austin Hogan's sampling of bore sizes. The extreme overboring was mostly below S/N 70,000.

[Russell E. Cleary]

the topic of over-boring also came up in the recent thread entitled PARKER TERMS AND NOMENCLATURE of 5-21-17, in relation to the mysterious term "relined".

post # 8 alludes to, and post #10 specifically proposes, "over-boring" as an answer to the question raised.

[Chuck Bishop]

Here is the graph of early Parker 12ga. bore sizes.

[Dean Romig]

Richard Hoover, Charlie Price, and Austin Hogan have researched "over-bored" Parkers as well as the elusive 11-gauge Parkers... very interesting stuff too.





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[Leighton Stallones]

My Remington M 1894 12 ga, with 32inch barrels made 1898 has .752 bores FYI