one amoung many

[wayne goerres]

Today I went to look at a gun collection. There were 20 double barrels all hammer guns. Intended to buy the hole collection. it was almost a bust. The first 19 guns i picked up were lamp material.I mean barley mantle mounts. All were low grade belgium junk,most without names. the last gun in the case turned out to be a parker. Gun is made in 1888 on a no 1 frame with 30" damascus barrels. It is a grade no2 with a goerges pistole grip stock. The unstruck barrel weight is 3lb 1oz. It has a c stamped on the barrel flat right above the barrel weight. Any body no what the c is for. It is a top brake with a fish tail lever. Is this gun in the book? Tryed to take pics, but there is not enought light in the house.Will have to weight till tomorrow when it is daylight.

[Rick Losey]

we would need the serial number to see if it is in the book

[wayne goerres]

My appoligies. I thought i had typed it in. The serial no is 53390.

[Rick Losey]

53390 is listed as a grade 2 12 Ga 30" Damascus barrels and capped pistol grip

[wayne goerres]

Thank you very much. That is exactly what it is. Always releaved to no that the barrels havent been choped. Any idea what the C on the barrel flat is.

[Dean Romig]

The "C" is probably one of those 'unknown' stamps and they are thought to be the mark of a Parker Bros. contractor or an inspector

[Brian Dudley]

At least there was one winner in the bunch.

[wayne goerres]

This is a trial pics post. Hope it works.

[wayne goerres]

heres another one

[wayne goerres]

It is only allowing me to load tp at a time.

[Jeff Kuss]

It looks like a keeper. It appears to have a 3" or better drop at heel.

[Brian Dudley]

In my opinion, I think the gun has been restocked. The checkering pattern is not correct for sure. And the grade of wood for the buttstock is abnormal for the grade of gun. Along with a few other minor things.

[wayne goerres]

The gun is going to need a little work before it can be fired. Bores are going to have to be honed. They are pretty rough. I will have to pull the stock off to see if it has any serial no. on it. All other numbers match. Stock also has a lot of cast to it. It shoulders well.

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

Watch out wayne you got my red towel! good looking piece of wood gary

[edgarspencer]

In my opinion, I think the gun has been restocked. The checkering pattern is not correct for sure.

I'm not sure I agree about the restocking.

[Greg Baehman]

The "C" is probably one of those 'unknown' stamps and they are thought to be the mark of a Parker Bros. contractor or an inspector
We talked about this before, at that time we came up with the conclusion that it likey was the mark of the barrel maker or finisher. In addition to being stamped into the barrel flats you will also often see the C stamped between the barrel lugs.

[wayne goerres]

I am dismantleing as we speek. so far no serial no. I can say for sure that if a restock it is an old one. wood is pretty dark at the head. Someone has chassed the checkering and did a lousey job of it. A light sanding on the checkering with a flat file and sand paper would put small flats on the dimonds and make the checkering look better. Probable do that and leave the rest of it alone. It has personality.

[wayne goerres]

P S I got my towel at walmart. Like everything else from wallmart it is not a very good towel.

[Brian Dudley]

Wayne,
Do not sand or file at the checkering to flatten it. Burnish it instead.

[charlie cleveland]

wayne them pitted bores will not hurt a thing ...providing youve had the wall thickness checked and its alright... charlie

[wayne goerres]

I have the stock off. There are no ser. no. on it. Brian what would you use to burnish it with. I think I will reoil the but stock and the forearm to match. There are a few minor repairs to make. I will not be trying to hone all the pitting out of the barrels only enough to make it clean a little easyer. I have nothing to measure the barrel wall thickness. Barrels only weigh 3lbs 1 oz. So they arnt vert thick anyway.

[Dean Romig]

I agree with Brian about the restock. The checkering pattern on both the stock and forend does not conform to Parker Bros. standards for the grade.

[Mills Morrison]

One of the experts looked at a set of badly pitted barrels for me and advised they were probably safe, but to not hone them as that would remove metal. Some others say to polish the bores out with a copper brush and drill and that the pitting probably looks worse than it really is. Wall thickness is the key, I am told. I am passing what I have heard along for what it is worth.

[Brian Dudley]

Yes, the wall thickness is most important. As long as the wall thickness is fine, pitting is not so much an issue. Unless the pitting is so bad that it creates a thin spot. Usually pitting is not picked up by wall thickness gauges. It has to be very bad to do that.
Pitting just means you have to clean them more often.
If there is a lot of wall thickness, you could hone some to try and smooth things out a bit. But I would not do that unless you are at .040 to .050 at the thinnest spots.

To burnish just use anything that is metal and smooth. The round metal shaft of a screwdriver that uses interchangeable bits works very well. Just rub with pressure and the points will start to flatten out.

Burnishing Allows you to maintain a glossy surface to the tops of the diamonds. Whereas sanding will loose that.

[Mills Morrison]

I see it is a no. 1 frame, in which case I would definitely get the wall thickness checked. The barrels mentioned in my previous post were no. 3. The larger the frame size, the thicker the barrels and the more pitting they can stand before getting too thin. If too thin, you may consider some Briley tubes if you want to safely shoot it.

[Brian Dudley]

Yes, there is a drastic difference in thicknesses between 1 and 2 frame guns in 12g. Or for any guage in that matter. Usually the thicknesses in the front half of the tubes will be comparable. But it is the back half where there is quite a change. A smaller frame size will ramp up more gradually, and a larger will get a lot thicker much quicker as you move towards the breech.

[wayne goerres]

Most of the pitting is probable not over a few thousands deep But pitted consistantly down both bores. Looks like 5 miles of bad road.

[Dennis V. Nix]

Wayne, possibly your pictures are too large which is why you are not allowed to load more. Try right clicking on your picture and see if a list doesn't come up listing re-size. If so then you can click on re-size to make the picture smaller. Most of the time you can click on, select all, to re-size them all at the same time.

[wayne goerres]

Thanks Dennis I will try that.

[James Brigham]

Great find!

[Bill Murphy]

I hate to bring this up, but some repeated agressive pushing of heavily oiled sanding cloth (what is the proper name?) with a dowel or cleaning rod, through the barrel will remove a lot of what looks like pitting. Just don't let the abraisive contact the breech of the gun and ejectors, which will round off the square edges.

[Marc Retallack]

Bill, are you refering to emery cloth?

Cheers
Marcus

[edgarspencer]

Emory paper comes in many grits (no Charley, not the eatin kind) be very carfull with at. You might want to try crocus cloth. It's very fine.

[wayne goerres]

I would'nt live long enough to make any head way on this barrel useing crocus cloth.

[Mills Morrison]

This was discussed on an earlier thread and someone recommended a copper cleaning brush wrapped with a cleaning cloth, covered in Hoppes and then a drill on the rod to work the bores.