Nice Gun. Agree about gunsmith check for low pressure shells
 

Dirk,

I agree with David Noble, get it checked out for low pressure shells.

I have an uplift hammer 12Ga made the same year. It was in HORRIBLE shape, MUCH worse than yours. My journey of restoration can be seen in this thread: https://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32865. As one forum member framed it, it is a story of resurrection likened to Lazarus.

This forum helped me find a great restoration gunsmith in Ellijay, Ga, about an hour away from me. He measured and checked the barrels and proofed them with RST low pressure shells, even though the barrels looked awful inside from shooting black powder and little if any cleaning, YEARS ago (My dad found it in the attic of an old house he bought before I was born; I am 75). I hunted with it yesterday and looked down the barrels as I cleaned it up. They are not mirror clean, but it is quite notable that a couple of seasons of shooting has cleaned up a significant part of the junk. They are still not what a collector would look for, but neither is the gun, since it is a restoration, though a good one, and it is much more presentable. I don't have before pictures of the insides, but I hope to get access to a borescope and document the current condition.

Explore the low pressure option before going to sleeves.

Somewhat related, I have seen discussions here of using "Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner", a specialized analog to bronze wool, to also clean the inside of old barrels. I have not tried it, because I would like to get confirmation of its safety for old Damascus barrels. As gentle as it is on bluing, I suspect that it would be ok---But I want to make sure. If anyone here can speak to this, it may be also helpful for your project. I plan to post a separate thread on the question.

"Somewhat related, I have seen discussions here of using "Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner", a specialized analog to bronze wool, to also clean the inside of old barrels. I have not tried it, because I would like to get confirmation of its safety for old Damascus barrels. As gentle as it is on bluing, I suspect that it would be ok---But I want to make sure. If anyone here can speak to this, it may be also helpful for your project. I plan to post a separate thread on the question.[/QUOTE]"

OOPS, I had not seen that Dean had addressed the Big 45 question in an earlier reply. Apologies for having not seen it.

So, Dean, I take it that you can vouch for this being safe for Damascus? If so, i plan to try it out, but not sure about using a drill over hand strokes.

I can certainly vouch for Big 45 Frontier pads as completely harmless to Damascus patterns, color case hardened frames, and blued barrels. It also works nicely wrapped around the copper/brass/bronze cleaning brush on a rod and chucked up in an electric drill.
It always works best when used with a solvent or oil. In other words, don’t use it dry.





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Dean, thanks for the tip about using a solvent. To clean, it used to be just use Hoppe’s 9. Now I see a number of bore cleaners from Hoppe’s Foaming Bore Cleaner, Hoppe’s Black, Hoppe’s Elite, Thompson’s T17 Foaming Bore Cleaner, and many others. Then there is stalwart WD40 and CLP as lube. Any suggestion for what is best for old black powder deposits to use with the Big 45? Are there any caveats for using some of them in Damascus?

Inside a Damascus Barrel
 

BTW, I got to look through a borescope at my barrels. Of course there are pits, patches of what I assume to be old black powder deposits, and tiny bits of the yellow RST plastic (this was right after a hunt before any cleaning). With any forethought I shouldn’t have been, however, I was surprised at how the Damascus patterning stood out on the clear areas of the barrel. Instead of the smooth surface of the pattern on the outside, it appears that the pattern has a slight 3D texture like a fingerprint, with ridges and hollows following the swirls of the Damascus pattern. I guess this is the result of years of exposure to the corrosive effects of black powder starting in 1879, shooting maybe into the 1940’s and then years sitting, probably not properly cleaned. Of course, this is through a scope that magnifies everything, so I don’t know how much the texture would be obvious to the naked eye if exposed. It will be interesting to see how much of the deposits come off with the Big 45.

I will say that the Hoppe’s solvent that dissolves copper fouling will harm Damascus barrel finishes… and possibly case color as well. Be very careful of the solvents you use. Straight ol Hoppe’s No. 9 is all I would use. As a lubricant and protective product I only use Ballistol.





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Amen to that! Do everything you can to save those barrels. They are much to rare in any gauge but especially a small bore (and good looking when cleaned up) to not save them. The butt plate and stock looks like a D grade. You might look under the trigger guard and see if the serial number of the stock matches the frame. There looks to be a couple of small gaps around the tang, and someone may have swapped a stock at one time.

If you don't keep the barrels, try and find another set to fit. The barrels you have will be purchased by someone if for nothing else than to refinish and run Briley 28 gauge inserts.

Dirk

Here are a couple of pictures of what the barrels would look like refinished. You can see why every one thinks, especially with their rarity, why they should be saved.