TTT

Dean....Gun #27588 G grade Hammer 12 gauge has diamond P on bottom of right barrel......

Thanks for that information Marty.

Dean,

12ga D grade lifter 17520 has 2 P's on the right barrel
12ga D grade top action 27356 has 1 P on the right barrel

Thanks very much Chuck.
Can you please show pictures of those marks and tell us what barrel steel is marked on the ribs?

Best, Dean

I believe it's an inspector's stamp. All of our inspectors had their own stamp; a Q with a number inside it. If it was a proof stamp, it couldn't have been stamped by the unfinished tube maker, because it couldn't be fired. If it was a Parker proof stamp, stamped when fired at Meriden, why would the stock be stamped on the head face, which would have required removal from the receiver.

Dean, both guns are 3 blade Damascus

The top lever gun has just 1 P but in the same spot on the other barrel is an R.

The lifter has 2 P's next to each other on the right barrel. Just inside the right barrel flat to the left of the weight is H L&C. I'm not sure of the &, it's a funny looking symbol.

Thanks to all who supplied information on the P inside of the diamond. I can now see that particular stamp has no bearing on specific barrel steels, which is the focus of my research.

I do however, still need examples (pictures, serial numbers or year on manufacture) of guns with composite barrels with the P stamped on the barrel flats where the steel type stamp is located.

This is the P I am looking for examples of.



.

Dean:

As a suggestion , try giving Larry (Bab ) DelGrego a ring and see if he has any knowledge of the "P" significance .I doubt that Lawrence would know, but you can never tell !! My guess---it is an inspectors mark .

Allan

I may do that Allan.

Something I have taken account of is the fact that during the period when the P is observed in that particular location on the right barrel flat Parker Bros. was also producing Damascus barreled guns with a D in that location and Twist barreled guns with a T with a crescent above and below it in that position. The guns I have observed the P on the flat are neither Damascus or Twist, but are marked Laminated on the rib with no L on the flat but a P instead and the pattern on the barrels have variations of a 'herringbone' sort of pattern.

More examples are needed.... "Investigation continues", to coin a phrase.