Parker Rifled 12ga

[Bruce Day]

In the interest of encouraging interest in Parker collecting, showing again this wonderful and interesting Parker owned by a friend out here on the Great Plains.

A serial number 118 something 12ga CH 1 frame with two sets of fluid steel barrels. The stock is a numbered factory replacement. Rondel side panel engraving.

Barrels:

26" uncut with rib inscription " Mfg for C A Winship Palms California by Parker Bros". 12 with rifled bores. Numbered forend. Palms California was a small community between Beverly Hills and Malibu, now absorbed into greater L.A.

31" uncut with standard Parker rib inscription. Smooth bore. Second numbered forend.


There are a few Parkers known with rifled inserts into the barrels fitting 45-70 or other smaller cal cartridges. I know of no clear evidence that they were done at Parker Bros although they could have been. Although there is no documentary evidence that these 12bore barrels were rifled at Parker, IMHO the physical evidence makes it highly likely that they were.

[Richard Flanders]

Both bbls on the rifled set are rifled? Seems I've also heard of Parker rifling one barrel of a set. What a unique gun! C grade too. Nice!

[Fishtail]

It's possible they were rifled at Parker but then you have to wonder why would Parker even have in house the knowledge and tooling needed to rifle a barrel?

[Dennis]

Rifled barrels or not I sure love that gun. The wood is beautiful. What a pleasure it must be to carry in the field. Even if you don't shoot game it would be great to simply sit there with a cup of coffee from a Thermos and admire the gun, first the beauty and then the workmanship it took and skilled hands to build a thing of beauty.

Dennis

[fred]

IN 1947 my father's employer acquired a 2-barrel vhe 12 gauge. One set of barrels was 26 inches and rifled. it was chambered for 12 ga. He shot shot #8 shot and it was deadly on rabbits which was the most common game available at that time in our part of PA.

[Jim Thynne]

I have a GH that has one barrel rifled in 12 gauge and the other choke bored. I cannot see how these guns could have been octagoned other than a factory process.
Julias had two of these and they were twins to this one.

[Robert Delk]

Back in the 70's a guy showed up at a local gun show with a AH with one rifled barrel and the other smoothbore. Wish I had been smart enough to find out more about it.I remember it seemed very heavy.

[Bill Murphy]

I will buy a bore micrometer and vernier caliper for any of these guys who claim to have a rifled Parker, just to prove or disprove whether they were made at the factory from extra heavy barrel blanks, or whether they were standard barrels that were rifled from whatever steel was available in the barrel. I think the C Grade gun is a real factory gun because I saw it when I was a teenager in the early sixties and the owner at that time had connections with the Parker factory and maybe with the person whose name is engraved on the gun. The person who owned the C Grade when I saw it in the sixties actually has some transactions in Parker Brothers order book 101. The owner was a kind of neighbor of mine, forty miles or so. However, I have never heard of a rifled Parker with bore and tube diameter actually measured.

[6pt-Sika]

Regardless of bore rifling etc measurements I would love to hear how they did at 50 and 100 yards with some of the relatively new sabot polymer tipped factory 2 3/4" rounds !

[George Lander]

As an aside. I have a Fox Sterlingworth 12 gauge (L) & 45/70 (R) that appears to have been done at the factory.

Best Regards, George