Early Lifter Shooting Again

Jay Oliver · 04-29-2022, 06:04 PM

Hello Everyone,

Many of you know the story on this early 10 gauge Lifter. I don’t want to go into too much detail as I would like to write it up for Parker Pages after a good hunting trip.

The short story is I bought it 7 years ago, but immediately returned it due to several cracks in the barrels. Then bought it again a year or so ago when I happened to run across it on an auction site, with the idea to save it. Today I finally got to shoot it!

Here were a few of the original threads:

My “New” Lifter – Possible Barrel Issues
https://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=16194

Warning on Parker 3644
https://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32553

You can see some of the welds that were done in the pictures. On the right side is the major weld/repair by the forend. I got a lot of help and advice from PGCA members on this, one of the many benefits of this organization.

When I first bought this gun I hated to return it as I loved everything about it. Shooting it today was just such a good feeling. I didn’t load too many shells as I just wanted to test it out, I shot a mix of black powder and smokeless loads. The gun shot very well. I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. I see myself using this Parker a lot…

charlie cleveland · 04-29-2022, 07:17 PM

you done real good...that's a fine looking gun....charlie

Breck Gorman · 04-29-2022, 11:44 PM

There is a big difference between Jay Oliver, and the typical guy, who would have folded, given up, and sold it for parts on eBay. Jay went that extra mile and saved it, and it was an uphill task.

Mills · 04-30-2022, 07:56 AM

Can't wait to read the whole story in PP

B. Dudley · 04-30-2022, 08:24 AM

What did you end up doing about cleaning up the inside of the barrels from the welds? I saw them after the welding and there was very deep weld penetration inside of the tube, I thought they were a loss and may not be able to be cleaned up.
It is good to see it back together.

Aaron Beck · 04-30-2022, 10:23 AM

i had the same question as Brian, as a sometime welder machinist. Great save.

Richard Flanders · 04-30-2022, 10:23 AM

THAT gun is well worth the effort. Bravo to you Jay.

ArtS · 04-30-2022, 10:34 AM

I have a gun much like that. It is one grade lower, # 4066. I bought it on auction, looked very dirty and tired, but I took it apart, deep cleaned everything, tweaked it a little and it turned into a really nice gun. Just need a lifter cap to be complete. I would like to have the checkering cleaned up for use. It is a 2 frame and shoots and handles very well. You are correct that having saved something like this really gives you a good feeling when you use it. Preserving is important, but there is a further positive to maling something available to future owners you don't know that would have disappeared.

Jay Oliver · 04-30-2022, 10:39 AM

Thanks Breck! You played a big roll is this as well.

The welds were strong they just went into the bores. I had about given up on how to get the the bores cleaned up from the welding process. I got several professional opinions and it wasn't looking good. In fact, I had gotten to the point that sleeving was going to be my only option and I was really excited about that. This the frame size of this early lifter if you measure the firing pins and frame dimensions fall somewhere between a 3 and 4. Parker must not have standardize the frame sizes at this point and I knew finding another set of barrels was unlikely.

Then Breck reached out to me a few months after the Southern last year and had talked about the barrels with someone who know Glenn Fewless and said the he could probably fix them...which he did.

Then the barrels went back to Breck for refinishing which was a more involved process as the barrels had been well used. It seemed that Breck had to do a lot more prep with these than usual.

Very thankful for all of the help. I had several PGCA members checking in with me asking how the project was going. All of it was worth it.

I can't type how happy I am about how this Parker turned out and how much fun I was having shooting this gun yesterday. Looking forward to showing it off at some future events/shoots

Jay Oliver · 04-30-2022, 10:57 AM

I also need to thank Mike Franzen who reached out to me right after I bought the gun at auction. We talked on the phone about a person who he used to weld barrels in the past, In fact, Mike wrote about his experience with cracked barrels in a Parker Pages article called "Spaced Aged Parker".

I sent the barrels to Mike who took them to the same place and then delivered them to me at the Southern. I really appreciated that and we had no way of knowing that the cracks in these barrels were to the point where the the welds would seep through to the inside. While it took some time, I was glad I found someone to fix that and clean up the bores.

This is such a great community that comes togethers and helps each other, which is so wonderful...