Help Grading and ballpark value
 

Hello I have a Parker Brothers lifter made in 1875 according to the serial number however I am having trouble grading it and valuing it. It has checkered wood on the stock and extractors. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

It is very high condition. The gun would be equivalent to a grade 1. Where are you located?

I am located in Ontario Canada. Thank you she is quite beautiful I am just trying to put a ballpark value on it as I have no idea what it would be worth. I believe I purchased it for $900 Canadian.

The barrels appear to have some exterrior pitting and this concerns me as the inside of them could be as bad or worse. This condition greatly affects the gun’s overall value.
Have the barrels examined by an expert gunsmith.





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"As good as it gets" would be the grade I would give it. The only grade above "As good as it gets" is "Never been hunting".

The inner barrels are in very good shape! I will attach pictures although it is hard to get a picture.

The guns of that era weren’t given model grades. They were called dollar grades, based on the amount they sold for. That was determined by the type of barrel steel, checkering and engraving. But your gun does look like it would be the equivalent of the later called grade 1.
A lower grade but still a very nice gun. As with Parker’s of any time period the remaining original condition plays a big a factor in todays value. Your gun could be worth more than a bit higher grade that has less condition. Someone here with greater knowledge of these early guns will be able to give you an estimate range of value, but that really needs to be done with a hands on evaluation. After being checked out by a competent gunsmith and shown to be a good shooting condition it will make a nice gun to shoot and collect. You’ll want to start with correct length and velocity/pressure ammunition.

Your early Parker was made to be used with metallic shells in conjunction with black powder of a specific length as the chambers do not terminate with a 'forcing cone' but rather have a 'stepped' chamber termination. However, the use of dirty black powder is not necessary as long as the 'modern' shells used in your gun not exceded a certain low pressure... but first, have the wall thicknesses measured with a digital wall thickness gauge.





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Dean, Who is making a digital wall thickness gauge?

Good question Steve - I don’t know. I guess the dial type is the way to go.





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