Hi Dean, I finally got a chance to take a couple more pics. Not very good quality, but you know I struggle with taking good pictures ;-)
Attachment 114482

Attachment 114483

Attachment 114484

Attachment 114485

Really nice!!

Thanks Todd for the pics!





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The problem identifying these early S/N guns is that nothing had really been standardized until a few years later. Some of these old hammer guns had very sparse engraving, some had quite a bit more. The tear drop on the bolsters sure looks like it would be higher than a grade 3 but the gun in the order book (7720), when I looked it up in the stock book clearly shows D/3. The stock book entry for 3130 isn't any help. Roy Gunther when he copied and edited the stock books has this gun as having Laminated barrels and it's an 11 ga. gun. How he determined this I have no clue. Many of the errors in the Sterilization Book is due to this. He wrote in red ink "L", and "11" for steel and gauge. I did see in one of the pictures "11" on the barrel. Could it really be an 11 gauge gun??? The order book shows it as a 10ga. gun, the stock book (Gunther) lists it as an 11 ga. gun and Todd says it's a 12 ga. gun. Your deciphering of the order book entry for 3130 is correct. There are 2 small words or abbreviations which I'm pretty certain the first word is "old" by I can't make out the second word or it's an abbreviation. Both guns sold for $125 but that price only matches a $125 Dollar Gun grade with a 12ga. Damascus gun in the 1877 price list and that's before the 25% discount. Maybe they were trying to get rid of 3130 which was a higher grade gun and charged the price of a 12ga. grade 3.

Have I confused everyone?:bigbye:

One thing that may help is post a picture of the fore-end checkering pattern to see how many points it has.

"Many of the errors in the Sterilization Book is due to this."

STERILIZATION BOOK!!! SAY IT AIN'T SO!! :shock::eek:

Everyone who has the book could be at risk.

Thanks for the correction Mike. Next time I won't type so fast!

Here's the fore end, and the SS Butt Plate
Attachment 114492

Attachment 114493

11 gauge Parkers are one of the points of focus of Richard Hoover. He had cataloged several original 11 gauge guns.

D3 could have simply been the designation of 3-iron crolle Damascus barrels rather than the actual grade.

He really created a lot of obfuscation by his red entries, some of them were contradictory to the actual records.





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That’s a beautiful gun.

Dean if your referring to D3 found in the stock book for 7720, it definitely means Damascus grade 3. What's your opinion on the "11" on the underside of the left barrel?