Finding information on 4216 - Exciting!

[Brian Dudley]

My "big" christmas gift from my wife this year was a copy of The Parker Story. She was able to find a very niced used Trade edition with slip cover for the same price that the blemished copies sell for. What a woman! :)

Anyway, in beginning to read Chapter 3, I was finding a bit of interesting information in relation to my recently aquired 12g. lifter S/N 4216.

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I was unsure of the grade initially, but I now find that it is a Grade 3 gun due to the fact that the Patent date on the trigger plate is engraved, and not roll stamped.

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The engraved patent date is only the 1966. Which is to be the Miller bolting system. And this is where my research got a bit interesting. Not really significant, but interesting and fun. TPS page 96 discusses the change over of the guns from the Miller bolting design to the Wilber F. Parker bolting design. The Parker design being that of tapered bolt and no extension pin through the top of the frame. They say that they ealiest known S/N with no hole in the frame is 4239 and the latest know with hole is S/N 5395.
It also talks about that many guns were retrofitted to the Parker style bolting system and had their frame hole plugs. And I find that is what I have.

TPS states - "Reworked guns, of course, will show the hole in the top of the frame where the original lifter extension pin came through with the hole neatly plugged with a steel rod. They usually have a tapered bolt bite, with the bite showing a soldered-in tapered insert to mate with the new bolt."

My S/N 4216 has the plugged hole in the frame.

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However the bolting arrangement is interesting compared to what TPS states.
The bolt bite (lug) on my barrels is more square with a bit of a worn taper on the bottom corner. And the Bolt has the soldered wedge on it, not the lug on the barrels. It looks as if the barrel lug might have been opened up a bit, but left square. And the bolt was reworked instead. This is very evident in my pictures below.

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And it is important to note that my gun is as tight as it was when new.
I have mailed my request for a research letter today. I am anxious to see what other info that might tell me. I suspect it will confirm my thoughts that the gunw as originally a straight grip.

[Mark Landskov]

Cool! Interesting discovery, Brian.

[ed good]

these early lifters are really cool... i currently have in inventory, 12 ga lifter #2074. it has decarb. steel barrels and has been fit with a pair of briley full length 20 ga tubes. soon as we get a warm day, its off to the skeet range we go to see how it shoots!

[Brian Dudley]

Apart from possibly "Earliest gun with retro-fitted bolting system" I am not sure it has any call for the Parkers found section. Like I said, I don't think that my findings are significant in any way. Unless anyone here thinks otherwise.
I will see what the letter shows. Maybe it will show the return to Parker for the retrofit.

[Bill Murphy]

Be sure to share the letter with us.

[Brian Dudley]

I got my research letter on my 4216 today.
It had some useful informaiton, but I was hoping for more. But that is the way it is I guess, one never knows.

It states that the gun was ordered by John P. Lovell & Sons in Boston, MA on Jan. 30 1877 and shipped on Feb 5, 1877.
It was in Stock book 1. Listed as a 12g underlifter hammer with 30" Damascus barrels. The stock configuration is not listed.
It was sold along with 5 other guns for $330.
The grade is not listed.

Mark did attached an additional letter saying that the gun was made in 1875. And that the line in the stock book for the gun was completely blank. So only the order info exists.

I was really hoping to get confirmation as to the grade.
Based on the photos, what do you all think. It looks to me like it is between a grade 2 and 3. A tad nicer engraving than most grade 2's that I have seen, but not as elaborate as some grade 3's.

[Brian Dudley]

The dog on the bottom is more than most grade 2's I have seen.

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[Dean Romig]

Brian, in the era that 4216 was produced Parker Bros. had yet to determine an engraving motif for the grades other than the higher the dollar value of the gun the more elaborate the engraving, but no specific formula determined if a gun was to have birds, dogs, birds and dogs, dogs and birds and elk, etc., etc. Yours was likely a dollar grade and later would most likely have been determined to be a grade 2.

[Bill Murphy]

I agree with Dean. Although this gun is quite early, the later Grade 3 guns always had some kind of embellishment of the breech balls.

[Brian Dudley]

Yeah. I was thinking it was a Grade 3 mainly becasue of the bit of extra engraving compared to other grade 2's. But also because the patent date was engraved, not roll stamped. TPS states that this was engraved on Grade 3 and above. But you said it right, with these early guns, who knows.

[Dave Suponski]

Another easy to determine indicator of a grade 3 Hammergun would be the 4 pin locks.