First Damascus
 

Just received my first Damascus Parker a CHE 12 gauge 28", it's still holding some case color in protected areas and showing signs of 105 years of just being around. Bores are bright and shiney with no dents, show a couple of scratches on the outside, Damascus pattern appears to my untrained eye to be fairly strong. Now I'll be working on putting together some 2 5/8" food to feed her. My camera seems to have lost it's ability to focus so that's it for now.:rotf:

It is the very nice Parker D4 4 Iron "Turkish"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...YvzD18i3c/edit

Please have the barrels evaluated, then enjoy :)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...vwLYc-kGA/edit

The 2 5/8" chambers were designed by Parker to be used with 2 3/4" (originally roll-crimped) shells.

I compared the writing on the rib of this Damascus barrel with that on my Acme barrel, I had to use a very white and bright LED light and a magnifying glass to read the rib of the Damascus gun, and it was still difficult because it is written so finely.

I am awaiting my roll crimper which I ordered last week, picked up a bunch of cases at the gun club just to practice on.

Very nice gun.

Congratulations! That's a dandy...and one of my favorite engraving periods. They don't get much nicer.

A really nice Grade-4!
Please give us a picture of the rib engraving.

We rarely see a white-tail deer on a Parker... usually a bull elk of stag of some sort. I really prefer the white-tail by a wide margin!!





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Any antlered critter works for me :cool:

Rib inscription CHE pictures
 

I have added 4 pictures of the rib markings which say "Parker Bros Makers Meridan Conn Damascus Steel". The first picture is the full marking which is so small it's difficult to get a picture of it with my cheap camera so the next few are up very close starting from left to right. One day I'll break down and purchase something that works.

Beautiful gun! Damascus ribs are hard to read because of all swirling patterns.

When I strain my eyes to look at this rib it appears to me that the wording has been engraved and not rolled, what do you think?

My suggestion would be to put it beside a known roll stamped gun and a factory vent rib gun (if I was informed correctly all vent rib guns were engraved on top the rib) then see which it matches more closely .

I have compared it to my factory vent rib CHE, it looks nothing like it, much smaller. I also compared it to my VH "Flat rib", both the VH & CHE are easy to see and you can tell the lettering has been pressed into the rib, the Damascus rib besides being smaller is a different style of lettering, almost like script and has not been pressed in.

Dan, I can't see the rib that well, but what I see does look like engraving rather than stamping. Regardless, that's a beauty.

It is more 'common', for lack of a better word, on Grade-4 and higher with unusual barrel steel types to see engraved rib legends rather than roll-stamped legends. It is often difficult to discern with the untrained eye the subtle differences. But the true giveaway is the difference between the same letters along the length of the legend. One "S" may be slightly different from another "S" elsewhdere in the legend. An "A" may be slightly different than another "A" and so on. But a dead giveaway might be the scroll engraved at the ends of the legend or maybe a stylized 'arrow' at either end.
I have had a couple of Bernard barreled Grade-4's with engraved ribs....See Below:


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Dan,

I copied and tweaked one of your barrel rib pictures, below.

There are three “R”s in the sequence. Each of them look different to my eye. Look at the tail of the R. The middle one is much longer.

Best,
Brett