Grade 5 Hammer Guns With Steel Barrels
 

Mark Conrad's Beautiful Grade 5 Hammer gun was a huge coincidence for me, in that a friend just purchased a Grade 5 Hammer gun receiver, with locks.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...107#post225107

In looking up the serial number, 108658, stamped on the water table of the receiver, more mystery surfaced. It is listed in the "Book" as 'T5 H 0 C 12 30'

Dean pointed out a comment in the Serialization book (actually on Page 64)
" Probably a keystroke error, possibly a grade 3 gun with Titanic Steel barrels."
Not to mention it is also listed as 'H', meaning hammerless.

This entry, in itself seems to be a 'keystroke error' as it is listed as "T5", and not 'T3'.

The emailed images are not clear at all, but I got to examine the receiver in the flesh, and it is clearly marked with a '5' on the watertable, clearly stamped 108658, and one look at the teardrops on the bolsters, and the hammers, and the engraving, proves it to be a Grade 5.
Now the unanswered question is, were there in fact 5 of these guns, as indicated in TPS, or is this a sixth?

Does your friend have plans for that receiver or did he buy it as a paperweight?

There is no question as to the grade of that receiver being a 5.

I firmly believe the 'keystroke error' was the omission of the "I" in what should have been TI5.

Depending on what records PGCA Research Chairman Chuck Bishop may have on 108658 the number of these specific TI5 guns may remain at 5 or may actually become 6.





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Wow, I want that receiver.

Ed, that depends on who you ask. He will tell you it's a 'project'. I am certain it will remain a beautiful paperweight.

Bill, If you put your thinking cap on, you'll figure out who bought it. I'm sure he would love to sell it to you. I'm only investing in projects I can finish before bedtime.

The Serialization Book is wrong. It is indeed a B grade hammer gun 12ga. with Titanic 32" barrels and a straight grip stock. The order book entry has quite a few specific special requests as to how he wanted the gun built such as stock dimensions, trigger pulls, type of shell to pattern with, etc. Too bad he has just the receiver!

Unfortunately, the stock book for this gun is missing, therefore the info found in the Serialization Book was taken from the order books. Remember that when the Serialization Book was compiled, grade D guns and above were searched for in the order books and if those guns were not listed in the stock books, those guns were added to the Serialization Book. It's hard to imagine the work that took place to compile all this data. Little wonder that mistakes were made and few at that compared to the number of guns listed.

Since Mark's gun is also a B grade 12ga. hammer gun with 32" Titanic barrels, 108658 would be 2nd known to exist.

Chuck, can you comment on there having been 5 or 6 of these Titanic barreled guns made.
Do we kno the serial numbers of the 5 accounted for in the tables in "The Parker Story"?






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Dean, this can get very confusing! From the appendix in TPS they list 5 TI5 hammer guns. S/N's 91632,94269,102517,102518, and 112752. Notice that Edgar's example 108658 is not listed in the appendix but we do have the order book for that gun, therefore 108658 should have been included in the Serialization Book and appendix but wasn't. Mark's gun 92850 is listed in the appendix as being a hammerless gun so it wasn't included as 1 of the 5 known TI5 hammer guns.

From what we now know, there were at least 7 TI5 guns made. Am I thinking correctly?

That sounds right Chuck. On top of the 5 known there are (at least) 2 more incorrectly documented.





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