Parker 12 gauge magnums
 

This is from a Remington dealer price list. I know of two 10 gauge magnums but has anyone seen any 12 gauge magnums?

I’d sure like to see the full page to help with my Parker education on the topic of chambers, chokes and barrel weights.

Thanks Mills.





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The only one I've ever handled was a Remington era CHE on a 1 1/2 frame at Randy Shuman's back in the day when the shop was on the back of his house.

Yes, I found one here in Maryland, Mark Conrad bought it and brought it up to specs before he sent it down the road. It was not an impressive gun, a light 1 1/2 frame, probably 7 1/2 pounds at most. It was a marked 3" VHE, late gun. It did not impress either me or Mark. I would rather have a 2 or 3 frame gun with chambers relieved a bit, or not. I don't drill out chambers. I would rather shoot a ten gauge.

Mills, are any of those ten gauge magnums offered for sale? Just wondering.

The vhe 34" gun I bought at the Baltimore show last year is chambered 3". It is on a 2 frame.

Parker Long Range -- In the 1929 "Flying Geese" catalogue the Brothers P had this to say -- "Magnum, Super, and variously named guns about which so much is now being written are not a new development in the gun makers' art.

For the past twenty years Parker Brothers have made guns to handle heavy charges of powder and shot, giving good patterns at long range. Recent improvements in powder and by shell manufacturers have served to make the Parker Long Range gun even more effective, so that today the Parker built and bored to secure the full power of modern loads with which one may confidently expect to bring down game at distances a few years ago considered impossible, is up to date but not new.

Parker Long Range guns are built to guard the user against abnormal recoil. The weight of the barrels is so distributed that the gun handles the heaviest loads with comfort. The purchaser of a Parker Long Range can rest assured that he will receive a gun, easy to handle, sufficiently heavy and properly bored to shoot the heaviest loads for the killing of wild fowl at extreme ranges."

The 1937 Remington era catalogue adds -- "Ordinarily Parker 12 gauge guns are chambered for shells up to and including 2 3/4 inches. These guns can be furnished with special long range choke boring to give more effective results at extreme ranges. 12 gauge double barrel guns, with the exception of the "Trojan" are also available with 3 inch chambers for use with maximum long range heavy loaded shells. So chambered, Parker guns are guaranteed to handle these shells properly."

"Parker 10 gauge guns are regularly chambered for 2 7/8 inch loads, but are also available with 3 1/2 inch chambers for use with maximum loads. No extra charge for a Parker Long Range Gun. Guns should never be used with shells longer than those for which they are chambered. See table of complete specifications on page 34."

Have any very late Remington era Parkers surfaced with Remington's "Long Range" choke marking?

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1937 retail price list back page

1926 vent rib flyer

i could read about these long range guns till the cows came home...i passed on a gun which i wished several times ishould have bought...it was a 3 frame 10 ga that had been turned into a 3 1/2 inch 12 ga..i have shot several turkey with my 3 frame 10 ga useing gauge mates in 3 1/2 inch 12 ga...also used a 3 frame 12 ga parker on geese and ducks with chambers lenghed to 3 1/2 gun weighs 9 1/2 lbs it handled those big 3 1/2 inch duck loads with ease....charlie

I am surprised that the ones mentioned are 1 1/2 frames. I would think they would be at least 2. 3 frame 12 gauges are great.

The 12-gauge 3-inch progressive burning smokeless powder load came out in the late 1924/early 1925 time frame with the 1 3/8 ounce load.

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By 1927, Peters were offering such loads.

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The 12-gauge, 3-inch, Magnum, load with a 1 5/8 ounce payload made the scene in 1935 along with Winchester's Model 12 Heavy Duck Gun.

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Some may be surprised to hear this but the 12 gauge is my favorite big bore gauge. Plenty of killing power and easy to handle compared to 10 and 8

Not to my knowledge.

Jeff, is the gun you bought in Baltimore marked 3" or did you determine the 3" chambers by a PGCA letter? Is it a late Remington gun?

Bill,
The gun is a 1925 gun. There are no records available for it. The chambers measure 2 7/8".
I bought it out of a collection belonging to a decoy carver in Havre de Grace.

i really like those record brand shells..i like the high brass and the figurtive rings around the brass also the writing on the shells....thanks for giving us info and pictures....charlie

Not a Parker but I found a rare sporting book which I have been looking for for more than 25 years. The History of the Santee Gun Club

Painters have always sparred with sculptors, and in my career I always pointed out (with tongue firmly embedded in cheek) to my sculptor colleagues that a a good, rare book is the ultimate sculpture. It has weight, takes up space well, takes you places far away...and usually smells like the past. Great find! (Guns are pretty darned good sculpture, too.)

if they made a 20 gauge 3 1/2 inch magnum i would own one of them too...they did make a 20 ga 3 1/2 inch slug called a hastings slug.. for a while there was plenty of this ammo but for the last ten years all i have found is one round it was given to me by someone here on the forum...what happened to this fine round and the guns built to shoot this 3 1/2 inch shell.... charlie

Would the 20ga 3" 2 frames be considered "Magnum" Parkers.

Good point

No. The first serious use of the term "Magnum" in American shotgunnery was the introduction of the 10-gauge 3 1/2 inch Magnum shell and the Ithaca NID Magnum 10.

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Back in the day that most of the 2-frame Parker Bros. 3-inch 20-gauge guns were made the 3-inch 20-gauge shell carried the same 7/8 ounce of shot as the 2 1/2 inch shell, just a bit more powder and more/better wadding.

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While the Olin brothers were playing with heavily loaded 3-inch 20-gauge shells considerably earlier, the 3-inch Magnum 20-gauge wasn't introduced to the public until late 1954.

my dad ordered one of the big ten gauges in1962.. it was a spanish built gun double barrel...that thingreall killed ducks and turkeys at unreal distances but it kicked like a mule..my dad liked big shot like bb and no 2 when it hit a duck with the bb loads it looked like you had shot the duck with a 22 rifle...my dad finally sold the big double ten and bought the first ithaca mag ten in our area...he hunted with this gun tillarutheritis got him to where he could not handle the gun...he gave it to me i still hunt with it from time to time...but i am also at the point of not being able to handle it well...the big ten will always have a place in my house....charlie

I love the big guns and big loads, but mostly for the shock and awe value of having them go bang. For day to day duck hunting, I have found an easy to handle 12 gauge to do just about anything I need it to do. And that is outshoot the folks with steel shot and modern autos

My LC Smith Long Range is a great mix of a lightweight 12 built for strong shells. I would love to have a comparable Parker 12

i too have a lc smith long range its got lots of choke great guns...i have a 3 frame 12 ga parker that has 3 inch chambers chambers probably lengthened by some one its not marked by the factory... but it weighs9 1/2 lbs it handles well but has modified chokes both barrels....another great gun but not much talked about is the ihaca heavy duck gun they have 2 7/8 inch chambers but handle the 3 inch shell real well....charlie

Agreed, having owned 2 7/8" tens, I can do all I've ever wanted to do in water fowling with my HE Fox loaded with 1 1/4 oz. of bismuth 4s. That gun was paid the ultimate compliment last season in Arkansas. I was in a blind with several friends, all of whom were shooting autoloaders and steel. I shot a big mallard drake in the rear end as he was going straight away. He hit the water, way out there, dishrag dead. My host said I had the only gun in the blind that could have made that shot. That's the kind of thing that puts the icing on the cake with these old guns.

SRH

love the storey...charlie