Why a letter? I can only assume to find out if the bbls are original? And to clarify again, I have no stake in this gun and no interest in buying it.

Richard a letter will clarify if the barrels were originally Damascuss and if the gun was ordered with a pinned stock. Why anyone would want a new gun with this done is beyond me unless it was considered to make the head stronger. Also the letter might give some information if it was indeed sent back and rebarreled with the fluid stell ones. The frame is marked as a G but the barrels are from a V. Lots of questions with no clear ansers.

Its a nice gun and if it were a 16 or better yet a 20 it would have come straight to Michigan! Love those straight stocked guns.

Thanks Rich. That's what I thought. If I were looking to buy it I would assume the pinned stock was not factory and I'd likely figure the bbls, which are numbered to the gun, were a later addition since they are from a V. I wasn't sure if that V meant that or not. I've not seen a pic of the S/N on the lug but will ask for one. Maybe the stamping style would indicate something. I told Charlie right off that if it were a smaller gauge it would have flown out the door to a PGCA buyer.

The first VH to roll out of PB was SN88220 in 1898. So, this gun was not originally ordered with Vulcan Steel bbls. It had to of gone back to PB for a new set of fluid steel bbls. The Kf stamp on the barrel flats is the early stamp on Vulcan steel bbls. I had a 20ga VH with that stamp that was built in 1904. I do not know when the V with a circle around it was adopted. If somone knows this date then we can assume that the barrels were fitted sometime between 1898 and when the new stamp was adopted.

What a fantastic upland gun if in the 6 1/2lb range...and 28" bbls.

We know that the K is the stamp of Charles A. King but does the "f" indicate "fluid steel" or "field grade" or somehow "Vulcan"? It has been my understanding that the "f" was a stamp of inspection. Look in a search engine like Google for "f" and you will find descriptions "comparison" or "averaging". I just did a quick scan of TPS and found no reference to a "f" stamping. Maybe someone can direct me to the page on which such reference is found.

I believe it was Kevin McCormack that suggested that the italisised F stood for a German word for "finished". Seem's to make perfect sense to me.Also we know that the first Vulcan guns were made in 1898 prior to the public release in 1899 and used the black Vulcan barrels.Altough there are a few documented Vulcan guns with composite barrels.

Is it merely a coincidence that the Vulcan fluid pressed steel barrels came on the Parker scene only a year after the Titanic fluid pressed steel barrels? ...one more reason to raise the question "were all fluid pressed steel barrels actually made of the same steel within a given time period?"

I won't argue the point that the "f" represented "finished" but only wish to raise the point that it could also have been an "s" as in the Old English script where the "f" was used as the second "s" within a word, e.g., Esfex or Suffex or pasfed or sinuf as in sinuf headache...

Dean... are you certain all that lead didn't effect you somehow?? :p

No Rich,he's not certain at all...In fact he probably forgot the question...:rolleyes: I think it's all those lead laced loons...go ahead say that three times fast.....:biglaugh:

HEY....