new member with lots of questions.

[dave egeland]

i would like to thank you for allowing me to join the club. i have a parker bros 10 gauge hammer shotgun that was given me by my uncle. supposedly has been in the family since new. the gun had set in the attic for years, so that tells you the shape it is in. would like to restore it and have been reading the suggestions. my 1st question is that i have seen nothing about barrels labeled "stub twist". what is a stub twist barrel? 2nd question: the barrel has 2 serial numbers on it. seems i had read about parker being able to interchange barrels? the numbers are 33366 and 17700. from what i can tell the gun was made in 1883. that enough questions for tonight. thank you again for allowing me to join the club. dave

[Richard Flanders]

Others that know more than me will chime in soon but I think one number is the serial number, the other the "order number". Stub twist bbls are very unique in what they were made of. Parker bbls are not particularly interchangeable generally, as every gun was fit by hand and it's rare that a bbl set will fit on another gun without some fitting. Stand by and don't go away; others will offer more info than I have.

[Dean Romig]

Either of those numbers could be your serial number as they both are for 10 ga. parkers with 30" barrels. However 33366 was originally a capped pistol grip while 17700 was originally a straight stock. It depends on where the numbers are located as to which is the serial number and which is the order number.

[Dave Suponski]

Dave, Welcome to the PGCA! The number stamped on the barrel flats will be the order number. The number stamped on the lug will be the serial number. You can also verify this by matching the number that is stamped on the water table and forend iron.

How about some pictures of your family gun? We love pictures....:)

[Drew Hause]

Probably alot more than you want to know about "Stub Twist"
http://docs.google.com/a/damascusknowledge.com/Doc?id=dfg2hmx7_40dxk2scc7
and Parker pattern welded barrels
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/17227428

[George Lander]

Drew certainly gave you the long and complete answer. The short answer is that "stub twist" barrels were forged from discarded horse shoe nails.

Best Luck with your Parker.......George

[dave egeland]

that was some really interesting reading!!! PARKER BROS did not use a lot of the STUB TWIST barrels, so kind of a rareity. the manufacturing of the barrels was quite an elaborate process and looked to be very time consuming with many steps. from what i can gather, PARKER BROS did not make a lot of their barrels, but instead had them shipped from overseas, primarily England. your info also explained some of the stamps on the barrels. i do have a couple more stamps not explained or found. a letter J right above the T and on the other side (not for sure what you call that part) a +. on the part (unknown) it looks like a letter E and a number 3. any ideas what they are?

1 more question for now please. i am missing one of the screws that holds the hammer on and wondering if i am going to have to have it made or is there a place for old gun parts. large head and very small machine screw. i have 1 that could be used for a pattern if i need to have one made.

DREW again thank you for your help. not for sure if you knew this, but a few years back the MISSOURI CONSERVATIONIST booklet ran quite an elaborate article on these guns

dave egeland

[Robin Lewis]

Dave, check this thread.... http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4825&highlight=hammer+screw

[dave egeland]

for some reason i can not open that page?