Determining original choke constriction

[Jeff Stegmeier]

Good evening Parker experts. I could use a little help. About a year ago I bought my first Parker, a sweet little 16 ga. DH that shipped in 1910. I haven't hunted with it yet, but it sure is fun to shoot. I purchased a letter and everything looks pretty good, but I suspect that the chokes may have been opened up a little. That doesn't bother me because it shoots fine, but I do wonder what they were originally. I have measured the barrels a few times and I always get .015" inches of constriction on both barrels. According to the letter, the RH barrel should put 115 to 125 pellets in the circle and the LH barrel should put 170 pellets in the circle. Since I'm new to Parkers, I don't know what shells they used for these tests. Does anyone know the denominator for this equation? (total BB's in this particular 16 ga. shell)?

[Dean Romig]

If I'm not mistaken Jeff, around 1910 Parker Bros would normally have patterned most guns with # 7 or #7 1/2 chilled shot at 40 yards in a 30" circle.

It should be pretty easy to determine what % of the standard 1 oz. charge was within that 30" circle. From that you can figure the verbal choke description... But it looks to me that at lease the left choke has been opened.






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[Jeff Stegmeier]

Dean, thanks for the response. Based on the number of times I've seen posts from you, I know that you are quite knowledgeable when it comes to shotguns. So, with your help, let me drill down a little deeper. You suggested that Parker used 7 1/2 shot for their tests. I'll buy that. You also mentioned 1 oz loads. I "think" (never counted) that there are 350 #7 1/2 BB's in a 1 oz. load. Using 350 BB's as the denominator, from the factory, the gun would pattern 34% on the right and 48% on the left. Those are pretty wide patterns. Since this is a 16 ga. with 2 1/2 inch chambers, would it be possible that they used a lighter load? Sincerely, Jeff

[Dean Romig]

The standard load for the 16 gauge has been 1 ounce for a long time but I don't know when it was first adopted. By special order or request Parker Bros. would pattern a gun using shot size and load to a customer's request, within reason.





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[Rick Losey]

not to be obvious - since a bore is measured by the number of balls (think load) that size that come from a pound of lead

16 per pound gives you an ounce

or 1 1/8 oz for a 12

i have always assumed the standard load relates to the ball weight for that size bore

[Dean Romig]

You're right Rick.





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[Robin Lewis]

Shot size & count per oz can be found in the FAQ page at http://www.parkerguns.org/pages/faq/StandardShotSizes.pdf

[Jeff Stegmeier]

Thanks for all of the comments. As directed, I checked the chart and it states that a 1 oz. load of 7 1/2's will contain 345 BBs. Close enough for me. Jeff

[Chuck Bishop]

Shot manufactures all had different pellet counts per ounce. Parker used Tatham shot. Someone may have that chart and post it, if not, I'll do it when I get home but also GIVE ME YOUR S/N. My guess is that your gun was origionally cylinder and full.

[Bill Murphy]

Could be that the low percentages resulted from the fact that PB often patterned at 45 yards and often used a target that is smaller than the now common 30" diameter. Some patterning was done at targets that were not round as I recall.

[edgarspencer]

Shot manufactures all had different pellet counts per ounce. Parker used Tatham shot. Someone may have that chart and post it, if not, I'll do it when I get home but also GIVE ME YOUR S/N. My guess is that your gun was origionally cylinder and full.

Chuck, If Jeff is measuring .015" in the right barrel, my guess the gun was originally supplied Mod & Full. I have a 16DHE and my letter gives nearly identical pellet counts. My left barrels measures .029" constriction.

[Chuck Bishop]

From what I've seen, Parker didn't use 7 1/2 shot until much later. They used primarily 7 or 8 shot unless the customer specified differently in the order. Shot sizes for 7 shot varied greatly. Tatham 291/oz, NY Lead Co. 278, Merchants Shot Tower 225, Dubuque 323, etc. So you can see nothing was standard in the early days. Since most of the time the LH barrel was choked full from the company and the pellet count is only 170 my guess is they were using a 24" circle at 45 yards but it's only a guess since the stock book for this gun is missing.

[Jeff Stegmeier]

Shame, shame on me. Some of you gentlemen were kind enough to offer input, but I haven't been on the forum for a while so I probably appear rude. Please forgive me.
The serial # of my gun is 151643. It's not one of those "minty" original guns. It's been refurbished, looks great (to me) and I like the way it handles. Both barrels have .015" of constriction. According to the letter that I received from Chuck Bishop (June 6, 2017) the right hand barrel should shoot a wider pattern than the left. Based on the information in the letter, we can all assume that the left barrel has been "opened up".
A logical assumption for a Parker "newbie"such as myself would be that it shipped from the factory choked "mod" and "full" (the letter states 125 pellets right and 170 pellets left). I simply wanted to start learning a little more about Parker's patterning tests. It was suggested that Parker used 1 oz loads of 7 1/2 shot which would mean roughly 345 bb's per load. If that was the case, Parker must have used a circle smaller than 30", or a distance greater than 40 yards.

[Robin Lewis]

Jeff, go to the FAQ link on the www.parkerguns.org page and scroll to the bottom. Click the link to Parker Bros. Booklet and look it over. You may glean some insight to Parker pattern testing.

[Jeff Stegmeier]

Thanks for the direction. On page 14 of the booklet they talk about # of pellets in a 30" circle. Very interesting! Thanks, Jeff