11-Gauge Parkers
 

The Parker 11-Gauge is sort of the Ophan Child of the Parker World. I think a lot of this has been due to confusion that has come about from some of the Early Catalog Descriptions of the wads to use; early magazine articles combined with the fact that many very early Parker 12-Gauge Lifters were chambered for Parker 11B or Parker 12B brass shells and some of the Parker 11-gauge guns were chambered for Eley Paper 11-Gauge shells or UMC 11 brass shells, but very many appear to have been also chambered for Parker 12A brass shells. These ideas are based on some measurements Bill Furnish, George Flaim and I made almost 20 years ago and on a careful reading of a number of entries in the 1872 and 1873 Parker Order Books. It is also clear that there are a number of 11-gauge Parkers that were not included in the list of 11's shown in The Parker Story. Several of these guns are shown as 10 or 12-gauge guns in the Serialization. The only way to know for sure is to inspect the barrels and accurately measure the internal bore/chamber dimensions.

I am trying to get more data to see if this hypothesis is fully supported by the early lifters. I plan to bring my bore and chamber gauges and micrometer to the SXS. I would greatly appreciate it if you would allow me to measure any of your early shotshells and the internal dimensions of the bores of your early guns for an Article I am writing. I can measure the bores and chambers of any gun from a 10-ga to a 28-ga. I would also like to measure some later period (1880-1900) 12- and 10-ga Parkers to determine the degree to which these barrels could have been overbored.

As large as the PGCA has grown since 1996, it may now be possible to completely solve many of the mysteries of the Parker 11-gauge guns.

Your help would be greatly appreciated. Please call me at 256-337-4082 if you want to chat. I am always interested in talking about these wonderful guns.

Richard B. Hoover

Richard, do you have any specific serial number ranges in mind to include in your statistical data recording or any inclusive years of manufacture?

Dean,

Thanks a million for the Parker Pages Articles.

Regarding serial numbers, the ranges of greatest interest are:

1. Any T-Latch or Charles Parker Maker guns
2. 11-ga guns between #2149 and #5287 as shown in TPS pg #1004
3. Parker #46740 --- I would love to hear from anyone who has ever seen this gun.

Based on some of the guns of Bill Furnish, I think there may even be 11-ga Parkers with serial numbers as high as 15,000. If anyone suspects they have an 11-ga in higher serial number I would love to see it.

I would also like to measure some 10-ga and 12-ga Parkers made before and after March, 1892. This will show how widely overbored the pre-1892 12-ga Parkers were (see TPS Pg. 517). This stock book notation also indicates that Parker made their bore measurements "midway down the barrel" rather than "9 inches in front of the breech" as was the practice in the England and Belgium Proof Houses. I plan to follow the Parker system for making these measurements.

By the way, I spoke with Dan Bromley of the Cody Museum today. They have an 11-ga Boyd & Tyler #237 made on July 21, 1868. They also have an 11-ga Delaney from London, England. But this is a muzzle loader that was made in the early 1860's.

It is not clear to me that they have any 11-ga Parkers in their collection. However, their computer list two, but they do not have bore and chamber dimensions for these guns. The exact serial numbers were not disclosed, s the guns were on loan. However, Dan did tell me that both of these Parkers were above Serial #6000. One of them has a replaced stock, barrels and trigger, so it is unlikely it is an11-gauge Parker. The other could not be verified by the Stock Book, no numbers above #5287 are included in the list given in The Parker Story.

Thanks for your help,

Richard

Richard, I will have a few low grade hammer guns to display, you can check these if you like, I also will bring my 11 gauge, I have a letter with it, think the ser# is in the 3000,s Are you interested in measuring very early back action guns, I have a couple, 029 and 97 both are 12-b I think, the 12-b shell fits nicely, gary

Gary, could you possibly bring your 12B shell to the Southern? Thanks, John

Gary,

Thanks. Yes, I very much want to measure these very Early Parker's. I may have already measured 029 and think it was an 11-gauge--if it came from Bill Furnish. But I may be confusing it with 049. Looking forward to seeing you at SXS.

Richard

John,

I will be bringing a Parker 11B shell that you may want to see.

Richard

Gary,

What is the serial number of your 11-gauge? How is it chambered?

Thanks,

Richard

I have a lifter that may be an 11 gauge. It is being worked on but I will try to get it back before the southern. I am also interested in parkers with 12 gauge chambers and 11gauge bores. There was some discussion of this phenomenen in a recent double gun journal

11 Gauge Parker
 

Richard,
This is the 11 gauge gun we talked about. It letters as an 11 gauge made in 1875. I bought the gun from Allan Swanson a year or two ago. The barrels measure ~.751"