DH Three Barrel Set Value

[Harry Collins]

I posted pictures of this Parker about six years ago. I took the pictures with a camera I had owned for ten minutes and I had not figured out how to focus. It is a #2 frame with three sets of Damascus barrels and as I remember they were in good shape with the exception of a large dent in the short barrels. There is no case colors though there is some pattern on the barrels. I am not trying to buy the gun nor is it for sale. The owner was querious of the value. I would guess $2,500 to $3,500. What do you think?

Harry

[Bill Murphy]

Or more.

[Harry Collins]

What do you think Bill? $5,000???

Harry

[Russ Jackson]

Man ,How rare is an original three barrel set ! Wouldn't you have to figure ,if all is okay ,between $2000.00 ,and $ 2500.00, for a decent ,D grade and at least a grand or better for a barrel set and the original forend ,not to mention the uniqueness of the Three barrel set ,if it could be documented !I would guess better than $5000.00 ? Just my opinion ,for what it's worth ! Russ

[Dean Romig]

No Harry... more than that even.

Does it letter as having left Meriden with three sets of barrels? The handwriting on the "310 / 310" tag appears to have been written by a different hand.

It looks to be in pretty nice shape Harry so I would estimate another 1 or 2 thousand higher than your $5K

I wonder how many three barrel sets were made?...

I know of only one DH four barrel set in 16 ga. if I remember correctly.... Dave?

[George Lander]

My uneducated guess is that an original four barrel DH set would bring in excess of $10,000 in the right auction.

JMHO George

[Bill Murphy]

We have discussed a GHE Damascus 0 frame 16 gauge three barrel set here before. It was described as 24", 28", and 30", all numbered, all original length with choke and proper rib ends, and all with forends. The discussion did not include pricing.

[Rich Anderson]

A set of damascuss 20ga 0 frame bbls and a forarm brought around $1800 on Gunbroker a couple of years ago.

Subtract for the 12ga but add the fact that these are numbered to the gun and I bet the added sets of barrels are worth better than $1500 ea.

[Dave Suponski]

I did an article on the DH 16 gauge four barrel set in the Winter 2009 Parker Pages. The gun went back to the factory for the extra barrel sets and was not ordered as a four barrel set. The original owner had the luxury of being about 15 miles from the Parker Bros. factory. The current owner believes the gun to be worth north of $10,000.

[David Dwyer]

Dean
As you know,lots of difference between a 16ga an 12 ga set. If it was a single barrel gun with not CC I would say 3K, then add 3K for the barrels and another 1K for rarity and get to around 7-8K???
David

[Richard Flanders]

My dream gun! Nice. I see the tags read they were targeted with nitro powder too. That's cool.... never seen that before.

[Dean Romig]

That's the one I was referring to Dave S.

Good points David D.

[Rich Anderson]

I question the practicality of multi barrel sets. I have three two bbl sets and two are different guages a 12/16 and a 16/20. The Hollywood gun is a 16 trap/skeet set and the trap barrels have never been used, the same applies to the 12ga bbls on 12/16 set.

I suppose IF you only had the one gun it would be more practical but whats the fun in that?

[todd allen]

I would love to see some more detailed pic's of that gun.

[Dean Romig]

Thank the Dear Lord that Briley's wasn't in business back then, else we would see scant multi-barrel sets today.

[Mark Ouellette]

I have a LC Smith Grade 2 with 30" chain Damascus barrels which have open chokes. It is a great gun for our local sporting clays courses. For this gun I also have a set of 32" fluid steel barrels with the typical LC chokes of .040" which I occasionally use for TRAP. Since I shoot LC Smiths perhaps a little better than Parkers I use this gun when I want to post a good score.

As collectors having a multi-barreled set may not be practical since we can always select a different gun from our collection. Competitive shooters seem to like multi-barreled sets perhaps due to price but maybe more so due to their brain's muscle memory. The fit of the stock and trigger functioning would be exactly the same regardless of barrel length. A different set of barrels would probably change the balance point and swing of the gun. For switching from shooting skeet to trap a different but correct balance point should be a good thing.

Another aspect of this is those Canadians and Brits who have to register and perhaps pay a fee to do so for each gun, multi barreled sets is very practical. Germans favored Drillings and other combination guns because they could own only one gun.

Finally, I have a friend who is trying to convince his wife of 20+ years to allow him to purchase a shotgun for shooting clays. If he is ever allowed (please no comments) to own but one gun, a second barrel set may be practical for him.

So for us collectors multi-barreled gun are perhaps only a novelity. For others they are very practical.

Most respectfully,
Mark