Finally Shooting a 12B!

[Jay Oliver]

Some of you may know 12B was an early cartridge offered by Parker in early back action guns. It didn’t last long as it caused confusion, a 12B takes a paper 14gauge or 12B brass. The internal dimensions are closer to a 12 gauge and 12B is a 2 3/8” shell. From the Parker Story, the 12B was no longer offered as a cartridge after 1878. I have never seen a 12B that was not a Back Action.

While I have a higher grade early Parker in 12B, I decided to try the 12B in a new to me very early lifter, Serial# 029. This gun has 28” Decarbonized Steel barrels and non-rebounding locks. It had to be made relatively early in that first year of production in 1869. I did notice in the Parker Pages Archive that there is an article on Parker #29, which is a higher grade. From the Parker Story again, it is thought that “0” prefix denoted an 0 grade. I believe this was phased out once serial numbers were in the 2000s.

I had two original 12B shells and I sent one to Rocky Mountain Cartridge so they could duplicate it. I ordered 50 and the shells are tight in the chamber and require a little light sanding/fitting to work(I latter realized the ones I sent were fired and had not been resized). I got 4 ready to try out today you see that the RMC shells lock well used that is mostly due to some fitting and that I had closed some empty shells in the gun with the hammer down which scratched the shells a bit(always have to remember to bring non-rebounding hammers back to half-cock…when I am shooting I do this automatically but at the time I was trying to fit empty shells).

While I would usually shoot a gun like this with black powder, I had my 12 gauge press set up for 3/4oz shells with 14 grains of Red Dot and that is what I used with an EML 12 wad and a 12 gauge overshot card glued on with Duco cement. The 12ga. Plastic wads were a snug fit and produced a good seal from what I could tell.

It all came together on the clays course, this was a very light load for the gun and it shot well. This was more of “proof of concept” outing. I will now get the rest of the shells fitted and load and have some real fun with this. I will try it with some black powder loads as well. I will say I have already reloaded the 4 shells and it was nice not to have to clean any brass.

Lastly, it occurred to me that this gun probably hasn’t been shot in a long, long time given it’s 12B cambering. It felt good to get her back in the field. I feel safe in saying it has to be one of the oldest Parkers still in use