Reliability (or not) of TPS Tables
 

I recently acquired a 24" 28ga., made in 1900. While the gun appears to have been freshened, in my opinion, it is in it's original configuration, as it left Meriden.

It's serial number, not surprisingly, is not in the book, and there are apparently no factory records from which a letter may be written.

The tables at the end of the grade chapter (Grade 0, VH) it states there were a total of Thirty Eight 24" 28ga. guns. However, In looking at the tables of 'All 28ga guns' there are only about 25 guns, in all grades, listed as having 24" barrels. Adding to the frustration of inconsistent information, the table listing short barreled guns (24" and shorter) lists several 28ga. guns which are not listed in the table of all 28ga. guns

All of the inconsistencies taken into consideration, it still appears the gun I acquired is the first 24" 28ga. gun.

That gun should be listed in "Parkers Found".

Send the data to Josh so he can include it.
There are still an awful lot of Parkers, being 'firsts', 'lasts', 'onlys', 'one ofs' and other features of rarity or uniqueness that haven't yet made it to the "Parkers Found" listing.

When Josh receives a good number of additions to the list he forwards it to the Parker Pages editors for publication in upcoming issues. It's always very interesting and informative to read these new additions as well as to re-read the long-standing ones.

Best, Dean





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Interestingly, 149020 is listed in that table as having 28" Titanic barrels, yet letters with its current 24" Damascus barrels.

Compiling such lists of data with cross checking several sources of information prior to publishing the results is no easy task and if there seem to be a couple of errors I think we can rest assured The Parker Story is FAR more accurate than the Serialization book.





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As we know, the tables and stats are based on surviving factory records. If records are missing, then those guns cannot be factored into the mix. I think there is some sort of extrapolation of data on the grade tables to account for missing records, but who knows how that was done and it cannot be taken as law. It just gets one close on some points.

Bill Mullins could certainly answer these questions as best they can be answered.





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Brian, I agree. But what lacks explanation is how a gun can be listed on the short barrel list, as being 28ga. having had 24" barrels (two consecutive guns, 113002 & 113003) and not being on the master list of 28ga. guns

Why not go right to the source and shoot a PM to Bill?





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Easy. Because, even though you hold the gun in your hands, it simply does not exist. The sooner you accept it, the better off you will be.

I know how that works because I often find myself looking into a deep chasm of my wallet.

Bill Mullins provided the authors method of extrapolation of numbers in TPS . I posted a photo of that text here before.

As for Mr Dudley’s question of who knows how the extrapolation was done, Bill knows and explained it .