What was and what could have been...

Mike of the Mountain · 07-04-2021, 05:02 PM

A client of ours brought in two doubles today for me to look over for him. A LCS Specialty Grade in 16g and a Parker DH 12g. This Parker was a 1900 date of manufacture. It had quite a bit of CC left on the action, tang, trigger guard, etc. Double trigger, capped pistol grip, beautiful checkered butt with skeleton butt-plate. Checkering was clean and crisp. Stock, fore-end and checkering looked original and not refinished. It has beautiful 28" Damascus bbls and ivory bead. Onlt problem is that it was originally a 30" gun! Also looked like the bored had been polished. I checked the chambers and they were 2 5/8". I checked the chokes and both were .003". My guess is after cutting the bbls they polished the bores and opened the chokes. I never say never but I don't see taking 2" off the bbls would remove all the choke unless it had very little choke to begin with. The ivory bead was also maybe 1/4" from the muzzle with rib matting right to the muzzle. The rib matting is what set off my spider-sense. It's still a beautiful gun with plenty of wall thickness left and a #2 frame. Everything was sexy about that gun except for the bbls. He will enjoy shooting it and it is really nice. But, it could have been REALLY NICE!!!

Bill Murphy · 07-04-2021, 05:27 PM

A PGCA letter could show that Parker Brothers shortened the barrels. Check it out.

Mills · 07-04-2021, 05:29 PM

Better check the wall thickness. Yes, the saddest thing is a gun that is perfect except the “improvement” of a misguided former owner

Dean Romig · 07-04-2021, 06:12 PM

Are keels visible between the ribs and tubes?

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Mike of the Mountain · 07-07-2021, 03:39 PM

Ran a check on the gun and the factory said the gun was sent back to Parker Bros and had a second set of 28" Damascus bbls fitted to it choked C/C !!! That would also explain the 2 on the bbl lug that threw me. Looked like it was a 2 frame but it was barrel set #2. Once again, never say never!! Now if the owner can find the original set of bbls!!

I told him he needs to join PGCA and search from there.

Mills · 07-07-2021, 03:54 PM

Having a gun that was a two barrel set but is missing one set will drive you nuts. I have a few myself

Mike of the Mountain · 07-07-2021, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mills Morrison

Having a gun that was a two barrel set but is missing one set will drive you nuts. I have a few myself

That explains a lot Mills!!