Parker Barrel Modified?
 

I acquired a GH Parker Ser NO 90324 from 1899. I received the Parker letter indicating it originally had a Damascus barrel. Its current barrel seems odd to me and I wanted to reach out to see if anyone can tell me what I have. The chamber portion of the barrels appears to be Damascus but there is a blued line at the end of the chamber and the rest of the barrel appears to be simply blued steel. Was this modified at some point by Parker or someone else? The Barrel is serial number matching to the receiver. Also, the barrel rib only says "PARKER BROS. MAKERS. MERIDEN CT. U.S.A." and nothing else, which I have not seen before as all the others I have seen have the type of steel stamped at the end. Any idea what I have here? I'm attaching some photos. Thank you, Richard.

it appears your barrels have been sleeved...charlie

Thanks, Charlie. What does sleeved mean? I confess I am new to Parker Shotguns. Most of my collecting has focused on antique military firearms and I'm familiar with the installation of rifled sleeves into bored out surplus Civil War rifles after the war, which were brazed to the original barrel. Is that similar to what happened with this barrel and, if so, was this something done at Parker Bros or by a gunsmith somewhere else?

The rib and stamping is not Parker factory work.

sleeving - in simple terms - is removing the ribs and cutting the back of the barrels (chambers and a little) off - and replacing the removed tubes with new tubes that are "sleeved" into an oversized relief cut into the back mono block of the original barrels. then relaying the ribs to the restruck barrels

so - old outside of the chambers area - new barrels


http://www.heritageguns.co.uk/Photos...ck%20email.jpg


BTW - most of the time - as in almost always - the craftsman makes the joint as seamless as possible - often hiding it completely
i have not seen one that draws attention to it like this one

xxx

Stamping looks hand engraved.

...as is the poorly done matting.





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The engraving pattern on the chambers is that for a higher grade Parker.

Serial Book has gun listed as a D2 12 gauge with 30 in. barrels . Does the serial number on barrels match the rest of the numbers ?