Barrel Engineering Drawings

[Bruce Day]

The Parker Story ( TPS) contains an entire chapter on barrels, which you may want to consult. Within 12 guages, barrel dimensions differed by frame size, intended use, and user choice. Thus, No. 2 frame 12ga's had barrels that weighed anywhere from 3 lbs 10 oz to 6lbs. I have seen unaltered 12 ga's with wall thicknesses ranging from .028 to .050 at mid length. A typical 12ga No. 2 barrel set will weigh 3lbs 14oz and have mid length wall thickness of .034 to .038, with chamber thickness of about .120, or to match frame bolster width.

We have had various people over the years attempt to quantify the elastic and rupture strengths of the many different fluid steels and composite steels used by Parker, all to no publicly disclosed result. One fellow thought he would use NDI radiographic testing on damascus barrels to identify lines of weakness. Not unexpectedly, the radiographs showed nothing but a mass of lines from which no conclusions could be drawn.

At least two others have acquired barrels or barrel segments and commenced some sort of studies, but nothing has come of those, nothing was published or disclosed and the individuals have apparently lost interest or have been drawn off to other pursuits. Several people believed that those investigators were serious about their work and were active in finding barrels for the investigators , but so far as I know the investigators are no longer active and the barrels vanished.

The only published experiments so far have been the Sherman Bell tests reported in The Double Gun Journal. Those were for strength of composite barrels and have been discussed repeatedly here and I'm sure elsewhere if there are other internet gun sites.