Barell Weight
 

The barrel weight makings on my dad's 16 ga VH parker show 3-6 which I take to mean 3 lbs 6 ounces. Correct? When I weighed the barrels on my digital scale which I'm confident is accurate to within 1-2 ounces, the scale showed 2lbs - 6 oz. These barrels are untouched. What am I missing?

The stamped weight, in your case 3 lb. 6 oz. is the weight of the barrels before the barrel finisher does his work contouring the barrels and final finish. It is not abnormal for a considerable amount of weight be removed in this process, again, in your case 1 lb.

Thanks Gary, I'm breathing much better now!

There is also been recent discussion supporting that the weight stamps could indicate the weight of the barrels plus forend iron, since many who weigh their barrels with forend on come to within a couple ounces of the stamped weight.

I personally also beleive this is likely to be the case. It would give the workers putting a gut together an idea of what the front half of the gun woukd weight when putting it together with a back half to get a target weight and balance point for a given gun.

Seems easy to check out that idea

I have weighed numerous barrels with the forends and none of them weighed the same as the stamped barrel weight. Most weighed between 1 and 3.5 ounces different than the stamped weight.

Not true. I have a set of unstruck barrels here and they weigh exactly as stamped before striking.

I just weighed the barrels with the forend on and it brought the total up to 3 lbs. Still 6 oz shy of the stamped weight.

So Dave, how would you account for the weight difference on my Dad's 16? The barrels are untouched and original. Just curious.

It makes no sense at all that Parker Bros would stamp the weight on the barrel flat of a set of unfinished barrels (that hadn't even been bored yet and that weren't even fitted with a forend yet)... with the weight of the barrels and forend..... :dh:






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May I propose a theory? The barrels are in inventory waiting on an order. Removing metal costs money so if I wanted to keep my profit margin in line I would pick the lightest barrel unstruck but of the correct length to fulfill the order. Spending and extra hour on a VH barrel makes no sense but it does on a AAHE. This info would help out production turn a profit.