Original or altered?

[Wild Skies]

In your opinion . . . are these Parker Reproduction choke Q1/Q2 stampings original or have they been struck off and restamped?

[James Brad Rhodenizer]

The Q does not match my 20ga. stamping. The bottom marking in the Q on mine starts on the left side of the oval and sweeps up and back down, much like this Q.

[Dean Romig]

They look original to me. I have a set in my gun room.





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[B. Dudley]

The stampings look a little odd, but i see no evidence of any wiping out of another stamp an restamping. And all other surrounding stamping looks right.

[Bill Murphy]

I can't see anything. But I guess the other posters can see more than I can.

[Dean Romig]

This is Kathy's set of 28 gauge Repro barrels. It looks the same to me.

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[Wild Skies]

I've said it before and I'll say it again . . . It's the itty bitty details that make the big big difference. It's these itty bitty things that offer clues to help us determine originality. Originality may be insignificant to some, but does mean a great deal to others.

Now I realize we're splitting hairs here Dean, but look at the Q and the 1 and 2 following the Q on Kathy's gun, the fonts of the letters and the numbers appear the same size. Whereas, the Q on the subject gun appears a skosh smaller, at least to my eyes, than the numbers of the subject gun. Three more things: 1) I see sanding marks under the choke stampings (especially under the Q1 stamp) and the bluing actually appears to have been sanded away, 2) a little different shape to the curlyque on the Q of the subject gun compared to a known-to-be-original-factory Q stamp (as James Rhodenizer suggested in his post above) and 3) don't the numeral 1's appear a little different, too?

I am again showing the subject gun as well as an original factory Q1/Q2 stamping for ease of reference.

[Dean Romig]

All good points Greg, but...

The Q1 and Q2 stamps of Kathy's Repro look very close to those of the subject gun while, as you point out, the curly-cues are different on your "known to be original" from the ones on the subject gun. So, in my opinion, the stamps on the subject gun and Kathy's gun appear to be closer in appearance than those on your gun.

Incidentally, Kathy's gun is also a 'known to be original' Repro.

And here's another thing to ponder...
There were more than ten thousand Repros made and I'll bet a dollar that they weren't all stamped with the same dies. I know only a small fraction of them were choked Q1 & Q2 and I'll bet a dollar they weren't all stamped with the same dies. I would suggest there may have been at least three sets of Q1 & Q2 dies in use at any one time - one set for the 12 gauge barrels, one set for the 20 gauge barrels and one set for the 28 gauge barrels.... surmising each different gauge would require its own bench chuck to hold the barrels firmly in place while the flats were stamped.

What gauge is the subject set of barrels?





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[Wild Skies]

It's a 28, in both gauge and length.

[Dean Romig]

I wonder if that is the reason the stamps on Kathy's Repro and the subject gun are nearly identical, both being 28 gauge guns and quite possibly had been stamped with the same dies. I know it's a long shot.... just speculation on my part Greg.





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