Thanks Jay. I am going to have to get my old macro setup out and start taking better pictures. I, like everyone else, try to get by with a high quality phone camera but it just doesn't cut the mustard. This gun, as I stated, is in really pretty nice shape. What looks to be rough and corroded areas on the metal are really just dark and stained areas that are really in quite a smooth and polished condition with some faint smooth CC left and more on the interior metal. The bores as I noted have some mild to moderate pitting, and my experience with other old doubles and wall thickness measurements lead me to think I could remove the pitting and still have safe barrels, but I won't do that unless I am comfortable that safe mwt readings for damascus would apply to decarbonized steel. As noted, I luckily have a set of new custom Briley tubes in 28 Ga made for a 12 ga 2-1/2" chamber. I will likely leave the barrels as-is and shoot RST 2-1/2" Lite loads in it.
Your picture picture brought to mind that I have a circa 1870 mahogany case very similar to yours for one gun. It came with a high grade 12 gauge Belgium percussion double from that period that I bought at auction. My case is a single gun model for 30" and this gun may well fit in it. I just a few minutes ago realised I didn't check the online list, but surprisingly they show info available in the records for this gun. I have ordered a letter. I also ordered a letter for another early Parker being shipped today. It is an 1879 Lifter model that I think of as a transitional 3rd style. It is a third style lifter with a wedge fore end. TPS refers to it as a 3a style in the picture of all the hammer styles shown in TPS and the serialization book. I bought it because it is a style I didn't have and it is a LAM2 grade. While the pictures show no barrel finish left, it is a LAM2 in the serialization book and has a laminated marked barrel with a circle P on the barrel flats, so I will likely get them refinished. That also gives me 5 of the 6 iterations of hammer guns in my gun room. I will be looking for a representative top lever hammer gun to complete the set (I have an 1882 type 4 already). For some reason the front action first model guns were never delineated as a separate type or subtype. I suppose that was because they were not a sequential change but made concurrently. The set which duplicates the photo in TPS would make a good display set. especially since two of the six will have Parker Laminate barrels.
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