Have these been honed?

[Bob Dombeck]

Here are some bore measurements taken on a set of Damascus 12ga. barrels. I just want you guys opinions as to if these seem to have been honed.

RH barrel .736 ID at full length of the Skeet bore gauge from Brownells
4" in from muzzle .734
3" " " .733
2" " " .728
1" " " .710
1/2" " .699

Left barrel dimensions are all within about .002 of the RH.

The gun came new choked Full and Full, 30" barrels
I would think that the full choke constriction should start further back from the muzzle.

I checked barrel wall thickness as follows.
RH 16" in from muzzle .041"
average is .031 overall
thinnest is .028
muzzle is .049"

LH 16" in from muzzle .046"
average is .032"
muzzle is .051"

Any opinions would be appreciated.
Thank you.

[Rick Losey]

i would doubt an untouched barrel would have a spot that is 28 thousands or a 31 average.

[Chris Travinski]

If I'm correct on the math, that makes .063" for the choke. Isn't full usually around .035-.040" ish?

[Mike Shepherd]

Choke is .035". The wall thicknesses, bore diameters and choke dimensions all look factory to me.

Best,

Mike

[Leighton Stallones]

Same here as Mike. About the same as my VH.

[Eric Eis]

Same here as Mike. About the same as my VH.

I agree with the above.

[Bill Murphy]

Sorry, Chris, you're not correct with your math. The gun is just like most post 1895 Parkers, both in bore and choke.

[Rick Losey]

Sorry, Chris, you're not correct with your math. The gun is just like most post 1895 Parkers, both in bore and choke.

And wall thickness? Admittedly no Parker expert, but i would have expected more meat in damascus.

I measured a set of Parker tubes that I know for the fact were honed at least twice and that is almost exactly the wall measurements. I need to go back to the DGJ destructive tests and see where those Parkers fell.

Other damascus I have measured (light English guns) were thicker, and K Kearcher had lightly honed one of them for me.

Still learning here, a lot :)

Thanks

[Bill Murphy]

Could have been ground down on the outside. Or the measurements could be a little off.

[Mike Shepherd]

I once owned a very high condition DH with Damascus barrels. It came with a small dent in the choke of the right barrel. I sent it to Kirk Merrington. He called me and said the dent came out fine. Said the wall thickness right at the beginning of the choke was .019" and that he had no doubt that is how it left the factory. Also have a high condition sixteen DHE, also sent to Kirk, also with MWT .019" right ahead of the chokes, also, in Kirk's opinion and my opinion, left the Parker factory that way.


Best,

Mike

[Bob Dombeck]

So the choke taper seems o.k.? Like I said, I've never measured this before but I expected the .035 final choke diameter to start further back from the muzzle.
Thanks everyone for your input, keep it coming.

[Chris Travinski]

Yep, math is wrong, but I'm Polish so it's OK.

[Frank Srebro]

Are you really? Yep I am Polish and I'm offended by Polish jokes as excuses for ........

Frank Srebro

[Ed Blake]

I believe the issue of barrel honing can be overstated. Chances are if you have a typical "brown" gun that is in used but not abused condition, the barrels have not been touched. Plus, when you consider how Parker changed bore dimensions in the early '90s it can be confusing. That's where TPS comes in handy. This is, of course, giving no consideration to "high" condition guns of questionable provenance, which, in that case: Caveat emptor baby.

[Bill Murphy]

.735 would be the medium-high side of post 1895 12 gauge Parkers. It is way too small to be one of the earlier guns. Austin Hogan and I have both measured more than a few original appearing, apparently unmolested Parkers, especially single barrels, that are bigger than the nominal .729 or .730, some as big as the very high thirties. Remember, even if this gun had been honed from .729 to .735, wall thickness would only change by .003.

[tom tutwiler]

I once owned a very high condition DH with Damascus barrels. It came with a small dent in the choke of the right barrel. I sent it to Kirk Merrington. He called me and said the dent came out fine. Said the wall thickness right at the beginning of the choke was .019" and that he had no doubt that is how it left the factory. Also have a high condition sixteen DHE, also sent to Kirk, also with MWT .019" right ahead of the chokes, also, in Kirk's opinion and my opinion, left the Parker factory that way.


Best,

Mike

My CH is .018 and .022 right at the beginning of the choke. Bore diameter is spot on at .662 and unaltered. They struck them thin back then on occasion.

[Frank Srebro]

Not a damascus, but here's a Krupp barrel that's .018" wall at the start of the choke. Bulge became noticeable after about 200 rounds, 100 per barrel, of 1 ounce 6500 psi loads. The so-called gunsmith didn't follow what we agreed to on max diameter for honing. Bores are now .738" and choke diameter at the muzzles are .712 & .713". Not a lot of constriction.

http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b450/silvers897/IMG_7423-p.jpg

[Mike Shepherd]

I took the DHE 16 with the .019" pre-choke section to Argentina and put 3000 rounds of lord knows what through it. It has 32" barrels and weighs 7-4 and was ideal. No problem.

I don't think I ever shot the the DH Damascus gun.

Mike