Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Dugan
Time and time again everyone advises to check your barrels for soundness and shoot low pressure loads in the old Parkers without modern steel barrels.
Response: I think "everyone" urges shooters to check for barrel soundness and wall thickness. However, not everyone, Parker for example, differentiated between damascus and modern fluid steel. Parker published tables based upon gun ga and wt, regardless of barrel composition and those tables are readily available.
Sherman Bell has convinced me that the old Damascus and Twist barrels that are in good shape are as strong as the newer ones made by Parker.
Response: Me too.
What PSI shells do most of you shooters of the old Parkers feel most comfortable with? The ones I have been shooting in 12 GA are by the reloading chart 6400 to 6500 PSI with 1 1/8 shot .
PDD
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Response: I load for ga and wt/powder, per Parker tables. I don't like to shoot high recoil shells, since I often shoot 100 to 150 shells in a session. For 12ga,I like 1 oz loads at 2 3/4dre or 1200fps. I load for recoil rather than pressure per se, however, most of what I shoot ends up in the 7000 to 8500 psi range, even new out of the box shells. The Parker load tables for 12ga gave 1 1/8oz, 3 dre for the light 12's and 1 1/4oz, 3 1/2dre for the heavier ones, again without barrel composition differentiation. Most powder today develops more pressure and velocity than the bulk smokeless Parker used to develop their loads, so I tend to load down. I believe a Parker gun today is capable of heavy loads and I have shoot up to 1 1/4oz and 3 1/4dre at waterfowl through a heavy 12, but for clays, I like to load down so I don't develop a flinch, flinch, flinch.