Question on Parker Research Letter

[Matt Buckley]

I just received my Parker letter in the mail on my VH 16 Ga and I have a question about the chokes. The letter states that the RH barrel patterned 170 #7 pellets in a 30" circle at 40 yards and the LH barrel patterned 220 #7 pellets in a 30" circle at 40 yards. Does anybody know about what my barrels would have been choked at out of the factory?

[Mark Landskov]

To properly ascertain the chokes of your barrels, you need to know the diameter of the bore before the choke, and the diameter of the muzzles. The difference, in thousandths, would be a more accurate way to determine the choke. The pellet numbers can also be used to verify what chokes the barrels have. You would have to know how many ounces of shot or number of pellets were used in the test loads. There are others that are much more knowledgeable than I on the subject. They will jump in soon. Cheers!

[Robin Lewis]

Good point. The letters say the count in the circle at a distance but to understand the choke we need to know the shell used (pellet count).

Is there a record of a "standard" shell that Parker used when testing the guns? I don't remember ever seeing any information along that line. Can we even assume that they used the same shell for every test done over all those years. They seem so precise in everything they did; I would assume they would keep the pellet count consistent but does anyone know.

[Dean Romig]

During different periods of Parker Bros manufacture varying distance to the targer, diameter of the target circle, concentricity of said circle, shot size, ounces of shot/cartridge, etc., were used. One needs to know what criteria, exactly, were being used at the time a particular gun was manufactured.

Mark Conrad may be the best source of information on that topic, along with a thorough read of that information in The Parker Story.

[Pete Lester]

If they were patterned with 1 ounce of #7 (300 pellets per ounce) those patterns would have been 56% and 73%, tight IC and Full. Obviously if the load was less or more than one ounce everything changes. Best thing to do is load up some of yoru favorite hunting loads and pattern them at 40 yards and see what it delivers. The historical information is nice to have but knowing how it patterns today is more important. Loads have changed since then and the chokes may have been relieved.