Another lightweight 16-bore O-frame
 

I don't know why I'm so enthralled by these tiny 16-bores but I am. This one is a damascus GH with 26" tubes. Made in 1904, this one tips the scales at a smidge over 5#9oz. 13 7/8" LOP to the front trigger with 2 3/4" of drop. Too short and too much drop but few things in life are perfect.

Having just received it yesterday I pulled out my bore gauge as well as my Hosford wall thickness gauge. My biggest fear was that the super light weight indicated barrels that were too thin. Thankfully that was not the case.

Both barrels appear to have been lightly honed inside because the right tube mikes out at 0.667 and the left at 0.665. Both bores are mirror bright. Using my Hosford the minimum amount of wall thickness I can find anywhere in either tube is 0.025", with good wall thickness through and several inches beyond the end of the chambers (which are still 2 1/2" in length).

All in all this little GH wears its 109 years quite well. There are several dents and dings in the wood, the checkering has begun to fill in with some honest wear and (probably) waxing, and the D4 damascus barrels have a few dull spots on the outside. It matches the serialization book data to a "T". Since I have decided to keep it the next order of business is to get a PGCA letter.

This little gem will be on top of Pan Ridge with me this fall in the Wrangells putting a few ptarmigan into the pot. At just over 5 1/2# it won't overload the SuperCub.

What a great little 16 bore. Congratulations John.

what a great honest little gun.

sweet

thats a mighty nice little gun you got there..i like the barrel weight which appears to be 2 lbs 14 ounce its always a great wonder to me how they get these barrels to weigh so little but still be shootable.. this barrel weight is lighter than a lot of 20 ga s and maybe some 28 s and 410 s..the parker amazes me about every day with a new find..congratulations on having this gun....and sharing it with us... charlie

What a great gun. Those barrels and that gun are about as light as they get.

Charlie,

Actually the unstruck barrel weight is 2 lbs and 12 oz - really light!

A nice well cared-for gun. You'll enjoy that one for sure.

Thanks for sharing.

john that 16 ga barrel of yours weighs what my 20 ga barrel weighs 2 lb 12 ounce... i no your gonna enjoy toting this gun at the end of the day... charlie

I wonder how it recieved such nice damascus. D4 ?

David,

I have a 1-frame 16-bore with D4 barrels also - same as the barrels on a couple of my DH's. Don't know for sure but it must have not been all that rare since I have two G's with D4 damascus?