David Schmidt You Have a Personal Message
 

What a wonderful find! I hope it makes it to Pintail and gets analyzed and photographed and documented to death for the archives.

When I was a pup, screw top barrel inserts in American double guns were rather common at gun shows. I would guess that most of them were removed and discarded, explaining why they are a bit scarce today.

Dean Romig - Upon further inspection it appears that there are some diamond check remnants at the center of the forend, between that metal slider that allows you to remove the forend, and then more towards the breech. It's all very worn...

I met with Jeff Kuss this morning, and he provided me a lot of great information. I didn't write it all down, but I imagine Jeff can fill everyone in, when he gets an opportunity. He was able to confirm that it is indeed a Parker and some of it's heritage.

Jeff - Please note that per our conversation, I edited my original post. Thank you so much, for your time and insight.

David stopped by yesterday to show me his family parker. It is a good example of a very early lifter. David's pictures show most of the conditon of the gun. It does have some pitting in the bores, but I think they will clean up some with #9 and a brass brush. The wood is in surprisingly good shape. Most of the checkering is worn off. I would guess that the finish has been refreshed as it doesn't have any bare wood showing. The gun is slightly off face. Yesterday was the first time I had a chance to look at a set of barrel inserts with rifling. It was very interesting. The top rib has a rifle front and rear sight mounted on it for use with the rifle insert. It appears it me that the 31 1/2" barrels are correct. The barrels touch and it looks like there are keels in them. The top rib says Damascus steel, but the barrels are too dark to see any pattern at this time. #9 may help with that also.

Thanks for sharing your findings, Jeff! I really appreciate all the hospitality...