Do not forget Parker Brothers made around 5--- 20 bore single barrel trap guns of which I passed one up in Las Vegas some 30 plus years ago for $1500 , because I was told and thought Parker only made 12 bores in single barrel trap guns.

To answer John's question----yes----Parker was in the business to SELL guns !!

Allan

The serial number on this 20-gauge Lifter is 10165 and the pin separation is 18MM which translates to less than 13/16" which is the 0000-frame size. In fact, it is more than 1/16" smaller - which would make it slightly smaller than a 00000-frame size... if Parker had ever even made such a frame size. The frame sizes were determined by firing pin separation at the breech face and are incremental by sixteenths of an inch. The 0-frame has a pin separation of 1" exactly. The 00-frame has a separation of 15/16" exactly... and so on.

My point is that Parker Bros. could have easily made a .410, even in a lifter, if they so desired. That bore size was certainly being made in the British Isles at that time.


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Never say never. One could turn up yet. There are a lot of missing records as Mills pointed out. Wouldn't that be something!

Dean,

Is that an early lifter that does not have the recessed hinge pin?

Would smaller frames like you are referring to been more likely found in that very early period?

Here it is John. It is an enigma as far as its features and configuration are concerned, but it does letter.




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Think of how difficult it was for the Skeuse family to build a small frame hammerless Parker with ejectors, cocking slides, complex floorplates, single triggers, you name it. How easy it would have been to build a 28-.410 hammer combo gun on an 0 frame.

It even looks like a 410 frame

I wonder how much it would take to have a second set of barrels manufactured in 28 gauge or 410?

that is awesome. Thank you for sharing the images and info on the gun.

It is cool how they integrated the smaller breach balls with the step for cosmetics. I really like that design.

Parker did some very interesting things. Thanks again for sharing. That is one very cool piece.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Dean,

Wouldn't that gun be considered a sort of pre-courser to the 0 frame, when the few orders for 20g. guns were filled on a one-off basis before a standard small bore frame was made?

A lot of the VERY early Parker lifters (first couple 1,000 S/Ns) of larger gauges measure all sorts of odd sizes since standard frame sizes were not yet established.