On my honor, I will not alter this gun.:nono:

However
It is far too tight "as is" for quail. I've torn up a few already.
I will immediately load some spreaders and report on how they work out for me.
But regardless, I won't sell this 20 gauge. It feels to me, far "livelier"
than any of the 20 repros that I've owned or handled. I really enjoy shooting it.
My thanks to Dean Romig for his advise, and giving me the confidence to originally make the purchase.

Fred,

For your handloads not only add a spreader but cut the petals off the wad. The lead shot will scrape the bore slightly causing each shot pellet that scraps to become a little less round. These will in theory fly toward the outside of a normal pattern.

Another method to negate the venturi effect ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect ) of choke is to insert a section of drinking straw in the center of the shot column. Close the ends of the straw shut so that no pellets can slip into the area.

The effect of choke is caused by the shot pellets being "squirted" out of the barrel at a higher velocity than the shot moving through the barrel (just like water our of a garden hose). Giving those squeezed pellets an unpopulated area in which to move (inside the section of straw) pellets are not squirted out at a higher velocity.

This is also why the shot string is longer for a full choke than for a skeet choke. Think of water out of a garden hose.

Mark

Mark and All, Austin and I discussed this choke mystery many times. All the Meriden era guns that Austin and I measured had to a lesser or greater degree the ogee choke configuration. After Remington started making guns in Illion the choke configuration was changed to a more conventional style and the ogee choke went by the wayside. It is very time consuming to measure an ogee choke accuratly.

Dave,

Based on the data you collected via all the ogee measuring, what percentage of Parkers have a parallel section at the muzzle?

Mark

Mark, To a greater or lesser degree all of them. Very early hammerguns were often bored with a full taper in the bore. It's my belief that Parker Bros. did quite a bit of experimenting with choke before settling on the ogee configuration. When did the ogee choke come into full time use? Good question...but I suspect somewhere in the 1880's.

Of the Parker chokes I've measured I find most of them have the ogee choke taper anywhere from 2 1/2" in length to as much as almost 6" in length and the parallel section at the muzzles anywhere from non-existent to 1/2" in length but most are between 1/8" to 3/8" in length.

After discussing choke measuring with brother Dave I remeasured all the unaltered chokes I have on hand to find the elusive parallel section at the end of the ogee. This is what I found:

(10) Damascus barreled 10 gauges NONE had a parallel section.
(1) Parker Steel 10 gauge PHE made in 1925 HAS a parallel section.
(3) 12 Gauge to include (1) Titanic Steel HAVE a parallel section.
(3) 12 Gauge all Damascus DO NOT have a parallel section.
(1) 20 Gauge Damascus DOES NOT have a parallel section.

I hope to see the spreadsheets of data on the chokes. It will be interesting since my small sample set listed above in NOT statistically significant.

does this parrallel boring help with a tighter pattern or does itopen up the pattern.charlie

10, you haven't given us the lengths of the parallel sections you found on your guns. I hope you intend to post those measurements as they are significant to our discussion.

Gentlemen,

I will trade you spreadsheets. Hopefully you've entered the data into Excel.

I'd like to see the data from the many guns measured to determine the percentages of Parker with parallel sections a quarter inch or longer. Were there any guns with an inch of parallel section? Is there a higher percentage of fluid steel or later, pre-Remington guns with parallel sections than older Damascus barrels?

My limited sample set of ten sets of 10 gauge Damascus barrels included no parallel sections. It takes a sample set of 50 of like objects to be statistically significant. Only 40 more Damascus 10's need to be measured.

My one fluid steel ten from 1925 has a parallel section which is but one piece of data. The six sets of 12 gauge barrels revealed 50% having parallel sections.

Has anyone sorted results by gauge, grade, or periods of manufacture?

Let's put this into quantifiable data.

Mark