Scott, did you buy the 1874-75 Lifter with Damascus barrels and tons of remaining finish? That was the other gun I wanted to look at! It is a jewel! I will post more photos after I clean her up. Cheers, and thanks for the nice comments.

might be , a 2 frame str. grip weight 10 lbs 5 ozs , can't wait to shoot it. look out crows and duck oh and geese :shock:

It is really a nice looking 'Lifter', Scott. Keep us posted. I am curious whether it was chambered for the '10A' or '10B'. That was the time frame when Parker was doing that.

Were the "10A" and "10B" actually chambered differently? I thought the shell letters referred to thin and thick walled brass hulls, with the outside of the hull having the same dimensions. The thin walled hull had a larger inside diameter to accommodate 9 gauge card wads (.815) that would be fired in a 10 gauge with larger than .775 bore. My D hammer has .793 bores that I load thin walled brass with 9 gauge wads, it patterns remarkably well with this combination.

I could very well be mistaken about the difference between the "A" and "B" designations, if I am please correct me, this is a topic that I don't remember being discussed very often. I will have to go back and look this up in The Parker Story to refresh my memory.

Back to the main topic, you got yourself a beauty Scott, congratulations. I hope it brings you many years of good shooting.

The '10A' brass shell has the same outside diameter as the modern paper hull. My 1879 Lifter has very little difference between the chamber diameter and bore diameter, due to the thin 'A' brass shell. The '10B' brass shell is smaller in outside diameter than the 'A' brass and paper hulls. I have dozens of brass shells in my collection. I will put together some photos to show the differences. Basically, the 'A' chamber will take W.R.A. Co. 10 gauge brass, E. Remington 10 gauge brass, UMC 10A brass, REM-UMC 10 brass and paper hulls (old and new). The 'B' chamber will only handle the '10B' brass shell. You are correct in regards to the wad sizes, Forrest. Manufacturers of reloading components carried wads in numerous sizes to accomodate different bores. My 1879 Lifter has '10A' chambers with bores of .808". A thin walled brass shell with 9 gauge wads would be perfect in my gun.

Thank you for posting this information, this certainly clears things up. I would love to know what the dimensions are of a "B" hull, both inside and out. I've lathe turned a bunch of the "A" configured hulls for use in my gun, but have never examined a "B" hull to record the dimensions.

in other words a 10b chambered gun will not chamber a paper or plastic hull is this correct....what was the purpose of the 10 b chambered guns.... charlie

Charlie, I really don't know what the real story is on the 'A' and 'B' shells. I went through my brass shells and found a 12B, but no 10B. I can still take photos to show the differences with the 12s. I recall reading a passage somewhere that stated that the inside diameter of the paper hull is the same as the inside diameter of the 'B' brass. So, maybe the bore of a 'B' gun is more along the lines of our modern, standardized bore, and the 'A' bore is/can be much larger.

I made some rudimentary measurements of the bores on my hammer gun and came up with .808" for the bores just ahead of the chambers, and .759" for both chokes. She's choked pretty tight! These are very svelte barrels, given the unstruck weight of only 5 pounds and 30" length. They taper down quickly, just beyond the chambers. I wonder if a letter would say if someone ordered the gun to be light?

does any one know what the size of chamber dia from A shell and B shell is? and can the smaller chamber be reamed to fit the larger shells?(todays shells) thanks scott