Early and Rough, but still a Parker…

[Jay Oliver]

Here are some pictures of Serial# 037, a 12 gauge back action with decarbonized steel barrels. It has been well used. I am restoring #46 and was hoping this would answer some questions, which it did. I hadn’t seen a forend tip from an early back action(as my #46 was missing the forend tip) which has a Schnabel look/influence.

This gun has many condition issues, but I am glad I got it. Barrels are cut to 24” There are a few minor dents that should be easily removed. The bores are pitted, but look to be shootable with light loads/black powder. The barrels do not have a serial number, I am not sure if this was removed or if this is a replacement set of barrels. There are only so many barrels that would have fit this gun, but they could be replacements. Also interesting, is this is the first back action I have seen where the lifter action has been modified so the pin doesn’t go up when the action is open. Maybe it went back to Parker for this…

The left hammer is a replacement and the right hammer, while original, is broken. The trigger plate is a newer replacement, which I new when I bid on it. It has the later patent dates which this early gun would not have had. This gun should have a patent date on the tang, but is not present.

It has it’s share of bumps and bruises, but for an early gun it certainly could be worse. The locks are non-rebounding and original, and work. I was initially thinking this would be a parts gun for my other project, but I think I am going to save this one too.

[Jim DiSpagno]

You should save this one

[Mills Morrison]

Very cool! A low serial number Parker is on my list. As in low double digits

[Mills Morrison]

Definitely one to save

[Jay Oliver]

This needs some work, but I agree it is worth fixing it. It is interesting that there is a "0" in front of the 37 in the serial number. My #46 does not have the "0" prefix.

[keavin nelson]

my three digit gun has an 0 in front also

[davidboyles]

If that gun could only talk!! Think it may have cleared out some bars!!

[Jay Oliver]

I just re-read pages 88-89 of Volume I of The Parker Story, which provided a good overview of the "0" prefix. Seems the consensus is that these "0" prefixes are found on what could be considered lower grade guns. I would agree based on my small sample size of early Parkers.

This gun had to be first year of production in 1869. I am sure this Parker has seen quite a bit over the years. I look forward to getting it right again.

[Austin J Hawthorne Jr.]

Just curious...what does the rib inscription read?

[Mills Morrison]

If that gun could only talk!! Think it may have cleared out some bars!!

That did not immediately cross my mind but you are probably right.

I have a great great great uncle who was a cattle rancher in Texas way “back in the day”. He supposedly never carried a gun, although he needed one.

[Jay Oliver]

Just curious...what does the rib inscription read?

Here is a better picture, click on it to zoom in.

The rib reads: Parker Bros Makers Meriden Conn Decarbonized Steel

[Dean Romig]

If that gun could only talk!! Think it may have cleared out some bars!!


Saloons David... :whistle:





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[Bill Murphy]

Dean, I have a picture of my grandfather behind his "bar" in the prohibition era. He also operated a pigeon ring behind the building where the bar was operated. He also had a successful beer distributorship that exists to this day. When his obituary was published in the Hazleton, PA newspaper in 1929, he was described as the operator of a "cafe on Pine Street" and a "respected city councilman". Repeal of prohibition would come four years later.

[Dean Romig]

Bill - I'll start a new thread in the Off Topic forum with pictures of some of my predecessors and a bit of history on them.





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[Jay Oliver]

I kept wondering if I was missing something regarding the serial number on the barrels. I wanted(really needed) to know if they were original to the gun.

After a bit of light work with a frontier pad on the barrel lug I was able to find the faint/worn serial number and....it's a match!

[edgarspencer]

The gun was most probably cylinder bored on both sides, as it predates choke boring, so cut or not, it will likely shoot as it always did.

[Jay Oliver]

Edgar I look forward to finding out how it shoots and I'll bring it when we go shooting. I like the few guns I have that are choked cyl/cyl. This will be a nice one to get back in working order.

[Dean Romig]

I had a 16 ga. Lifter that had been cut back from 28” to 24” so it effectively had no choke.
But that little gun could really account for itself on 35, 40 and longer yardage clay targets. I was always anazed by how this gun would smash targets waay out there.





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[edgarspencer]

I had a 16 ga. Lifter that had been cut back from 28” to 24” so it effectively had no choke.
But that little gun could really account for itself on 35, 40 and longer yardage clay targets. I was always anazed by how this gun would smash targets waay out there.

Seems to me I recall that gun pretty well. Never should have..... oh hell.

"An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force."

Newton's First Law says to me that a cylinder bore will alter the direction and spread less than a choked bore. I have patterned a couple guns that have had their barrels cut to an extent that NO choke exists. I was amazed to see that the pattern is very much tighter than a lightly choked bore, up to a point where air resistance also begins to affect it.

[Daniel Carter]

Some where in the writings of Michael McIntosh he says of an English gun that he used that was cyl/cyl that on high pheasants he had as much success as others using much tighter chokes. His conclusion was that we pay too much attention to choke and not enough to our shooting. I have a bad habit of over estimating range and once i realized it and used less choke was pleasently surprised with the results.

[Russell E. Cleary]

Edgar:

I am trying to understand this effect.

QUOTE: ”…a cylinder bore will alter the direction and spread less than a choked bore…”

Can this mean that the “unbalanced force” that is absent with a cylinder bore gun as Dean’s be a tight choke constriction, that produces in comparison a diminishing-return, shot-confusing, "ricocheting”, dispersal of ejecta from the bore?

Russell

[Dean Romig]

That's my take on it Russel and to my mind a choke bore is an "unbalancing force" in that the choke constriction upsets or unbalances the unidirectional travel of each pellet in the shot charge.

Here's another example of the far-reaching qualities of that little cutoff Lifter.
At Hausmann's there is that station waay out at the end of the field where two simultaneous clays come screaming out from way up there in the woods going from right to left. It is a six target station and I smashed 5 for 6 with that gun with no choke. I would estimate that to be easily a 40 plus yard shot... maybe more.

Larry Frey was with me along with a few others but I don't recall exactly who.





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[Mills Morrison]

All of that, and my opinion that there is something special about Parker barrels. . . . as unscientific as it is.

[edgarspencer]

The taper wall of the choke portion departs from the straight wall, and the shorter the the choke, the greater the angle. Yes, that is the unbalanced force (action/reaction) that shot which begins changing direction rebounding from the choke wall begins a disruption in the mass of the shot stream.
In a true cylinder bore, that shot mass is impacted by no unbalanced force, and tends to stay in closer proximity to the center line.
All of this is my conjecture, and I can be convinced I'm wrong, but what supports my belief is lots of pattern paper shows a shot density well tighter than Skeet 2, approaching modified. I never gave it enough thought but I am sure that wad type will have some effect as well. It simply makes sense, that in the absence of anything that will alter the shot direction as it travels down and out the bore, the total shot mass will continue in a straight direction.

All barrels shoot to a certain point of impact. I do have a gun with two sets of barrels; one being cut from 30" to 24", the other being more or less Imp.Cyl and Modified. I fully expect that if I draw a circle around the total pellets of the cylinder bore barrel, and then shoot at the same paper with a choked barrel, there will be new holes. Beyond some distance, this will, no doubt, be less noticeable.

[Jay Oliver]

I agree with all the comments about a gun without a choke(cylinder bore). They shoot better than should given all we have been told or read regarding shotgun chokes.

I just recently bought a 2" 12gauge sxs with 25" barrels choked cyl/cyl. At my regular sporting clay place(PeaceDale Shooting Preserve in RI), there wasn't a target I couldn't hit/figure out(even if I needed a few tries) on the whole course. This was with 3/4oz loads with the short brush wads.

Looking forward to getting this gun old back action straightened out. I did read/figure out another piece of information. It seems the lower grade back action guns had the patent date on the trigger plate and higher grade back action guns had that information on the tang. At least in these early guns.

[Dean Romig]

n and out the bore, the total shot mass will (wants to ?) continue in a straight direction.

All barrels shoot to a certain point of impact. I do have a gun with two sets of barrels; one being cut from 30" to 24", the other being more or less Imp.Cyl and Modified. I fully expect that if I draw a circle around the total pellets of the cylinder bore barrel, and then shoot at the same paper with a choked barrel, there will be new holes (presuming you mean outside of the scribed circle?) Beyond some distance, this will, no doubt, be less noticeable.

A question Edgar...




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[edgarspencer]

A question Edgar...

Yes, thank you.

[Richard Flanders]

My most prolific day of bird shooting ever was at a preserve in Utah over pointing dogs. I was using my transition era 26" VH12 that I had XXX open the chokes to IC/MOD from F/F. It ended up being +.004"/-.003", so it's a blunderbuss on one side. By the end of our 3 days of unlimited birds there I couldn't seem to miss with that gun and even killed a rooster at 70yds(guide called the range)with one #7-1/2 pellet to the head. I pulled off a double on chukars that took off 180deg to each other and nailed a quail that rocketed past my ear requiring me to spin 180deg and take him going away. I think I was more surprised than the bird. One day I killed 54 birds with that gun and was feeling pretty deadly with it. I can't imagine ever having another day like that. I was surprised how effective the open chokes were on every kind of shot. I have two other Parkers that are pretty much if not totally 0 choked and both are deadly over pointers in cover, especially my 24" PHE16. For open country pheasant and sharptails and for pass shooting ducks, I'll take choked guns.