Barrel Length

[ArtS]

I saw an interesting listing today (Guns International #: 101858387) that was new this week. The private seller is named Russell from Pennsylvania. He may be a memeber here; don't know.

The listing is for a 20 gauge PH O frame with Twist barrels. The serial number from the Oct 2021 Research letter shown is 175982. This pops up as having factory data availbable but the serialization book has no entry and the correct stock book is listed as missing. Unfortunately none of the pictures show the water table, the trigger guard or any other part with the serial number. The interesting part is that the Letter based on the order lists the barrel as 25-1/2".
One picture shows a tape measure at the muzzle measuring 25-3/8". The rib at the breech shows a correct solid strip in front of the matting. The seller is proposing that the gun is either one of the 2 listed PH 20 gauges with 25" barrels or a unique one of a kind. Unfortunately, with the pictures shown, it is impossible to determine if any of the facts are correct. There is a picture of the barrel flats which shows a T, but it is neither circled or have the arcs top and bottom. The angle of that picture doesn't show the serial number. It does show that it is an O frame barrel set. I do have to agree that it doesn't look like a longer set of barrels cut down.

The final unfortunate thing is that the barrel rib engraving which should say Twist Steel has been scratched off.

The thing that puzzled me is that I have never seen or heard of a set of 25-1/2" barrels (or any other fractional measurement). Being a 25" is rare enough (I own one) but I went through all the tables in the Parker story and only came up with a total of 24 for all grades and barrel steel variations. The 24" are much more common. There are no fractional lengths mentioned at all. I would suspect if an order were recieved and accomodated, they would take a rough set of 26", cut them down then finish with ribs to match. This would be supported by the fact that the gun was ordered in Nov 1916 and shipped September 1917, which was late in the last year of Twist barrel PH production. The long lead on a low grade gun could have been due to finding a set of barrels and modifying them.

The barrel flats show a weight of 3-7. The ad shows a gun wight of 6# 12 oz, which is 12 or 13 oz more than my 16 ga O frame damascus. That could be true given the reduced bore and the fact the barrels have to fit the same frame externally. However, nearly 7 pounds for a 20 gauge isn't exactly a wand.

Has anyone ever heard of a situation where barrels were fractional from the factory, especially when involving a rare length to start with? Of all the factory letters I have seen, this is a first.