hay guys. was just told to join here because i got my first parker bro's. it's a trojan 12g sxs. 1913 turns up when i run the serial number. got this gun from my father in law who never really took care of it. was helping him clean out his basement one day and found it stashed behind his furnace. he sayed i could have it so it was a done deal. it's a nice gun, really doesn't look bad at all. the only thing is the foregrip is missing off of it. i figured a way to cock the pins by pushing the pin in front while breaking the action. i actually fired some rounds through it already without the grip but i would like to find that part if anybody can help me out. i measured the chambers as 2 5/8's but shot a few 2 3/4" shells through it cause thta's all i had. i was concerned of it's vintage so strapped in to a bench to fire it with a string for the first rounds through each barrel. i'm wondering just how critical this chamber thing is after i found this post
This fear of shooting shells slightly longer than the gun's chamber is way over blown. I have three "modern" fired plastic nominally 2 3/4 inch 20-gauge hulls sitting on my desk -- compression formed Winchester AA, Remington Gun Club and and Active. All three have an actual fired length of 2 5/8 inch. I just went out to the garage and checked a pile of empties I policed up while out hunting, mostly 12- and 16-gauge all are 1/16 to 1/8 inch shorther than 2 3/4 inch. Even a Remington 20-gauge 3-inch Nitro Mag hull was only 2 7/8 inch.
Back in the day, several of our manufacturers (A.H. Fox Gun Co. and Parker Bros. that I am most familiar with) had a general policy of holding their chambers 1/8 inch shorter than the intended shell length. The belief being that the hull mouth extending a ways into the forcing cone provided a better gas seal and cushoned the shot charge, giving better patterns. The only two A.H. Fox Gun Co. catalogues, that I have seen, that state chamber lengths are the 1913 and 1914. They both state 12-gauge guns are regularly chambered for 2 3/4 - inch shells, 16-gauge 2 9/16 – inch shells and 20-gauge 2 1/2 - inch shells. That being said, virtually every 12-gauge Ansley H. Fox gun made in Philadelphia (other than the HE-Grade Super-Fox) that I've run a chamber gauge in shows about 2 5/8 - inch. The chambers of unmolested 16-gauge guns seem to run about 2 7/16 inch and 20-gauge guns a hair over 2 3/8 inch. A few graded guns were ordered with longer chambers. I have a 30-inch barrel 20-gauge AE-Grade that was produced in 1920 and it was ordered "chamber for 2 3/4 inch shell". The chambers are in fact 2 5/8 inch. In the 1930's there were a couple of articles in The American Rifleman (July 1936 and March 1938) by Arthur P. Curtis, on the virtue of short chambers. A series by Sherman Bell in The Double Gun Journal showed no significant increase in pressure from shooting shells in up to 1/4 inch short chambers.
i have some pics of the gun i will post here for you guys. i'm looking to make this baby complete! more pics to come but here's one for now. the stock is absolutely minty. no cracks whatsoever
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