Lifter, 1875
 

I just got this gun in the mail. I’m darn happy. It has over .110 at the chamber and and over .035 min. wall thickness. Plus, minty shiny bores. The gun is in excellent original metal and wood condition and is tight. It seems to have a replacement firing pin made from a screw yet I have a firing pins enroute from Brian Dudley.
I’m lucky with this auction gun. One issue is my Galazon brass choke gauge shows 12 gauge “cylinder” and “loose cylinder”. I don’t have anyway to measure the basic bore diameter, yet it’s my understanding the basic bore diameter will be wider than a modern gun. What are the bore diameters of the the members’ guns in this era?

.729” is the nominal bore diameter of a 12 gauge gun but some early 12’s were bored closer to, but not quite, 11 gauge.





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That's a nice early lifter Jeff. One of my best shooting Parkers, is a one from 1874 and my simple choke gauge measures it the same as you describe. It shoots an open pattern, but I seem to be able to hit most anything with it.

I think you will enjoy shooting yours...let us know how she shoots...

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...1900+bore+size

I found this thread with an informative chart.

That plotting chart posted by Chuck Bishop on that earlier thread was done by Austin Hogan, possibly with some input from others.

Richard Hoover worked closely with Austin, Charlie Price, and Bill Furnish to determine which guns in the more than 100 guns they measured were overbored, honed over or were actually true 11 gauge guns.
Unfortunately Richard Hoover is the only one who is still with us today and it’s too bad that we never hear from him on this forum anymore.





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Jeffery, on the top rib legend we see an S just before the edge of the picture… is that the beginning of Stub Twist?





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Hi Jeff.

I have a early lifter c.1874 two barrel Stub Twist set very similar to yours. The bore diameter for barrel #1 is .760 and .759. Barrel #2 .750 and .753. According to the letter barrels #1 were sent back in 1894 to have dents removed and clean out barrels. Note the larger bore diameter in barrel #1.

Yes, stub twist.

This guns bores measured at Left — .754 with .023 choke and Right — .751 with .20 choke. The inside of the barrels are in amazingly good shape, shiny all the way.

The pictures show the stub twist pattern which is strong for most of the barrels length. As mentioned there is plenty of thickness at the end of the chamber and down the length. The gun weighs 8 pounds 5 ounces. The stock shaping works for me. I always feel there is a lot of risk on auction guns yet this is a case where it worked out to say the least.

Another question I’d appreciate help with: my brass gauge shows 2 9/16 plus chambers and the gun does have short forcing cones versus a step ledge. What do the chambers look like in similar era guns?

really nice lifter....I have one that's not hardly as good as yours....but still tight and a good shooter...my lifters have plain steel barrels on 2 of them and my 11 ga is I don't remember at the moment...charlie