Two Sets of Fitted Barrels

[Joe Graziano]

Gents,

I recently purchased a restored GHE from Robin Hollow with a set of fitted repro barrels. I mentioned on here earlier that I may have Briley's installed in these. The gun comes with the original damascus barrels. The seller emphasized that the gun is fitted only for the fluid steel barrels. I would love to eventually have the damascus barrels restored and fit to the gun.

Question, can the gun be fit to allow the use of both sets of barrels?

Thanks always for your expertise.

[C.O.B.]

If you have the original damascuss barrels why wouldn't they fit the gun? Was the gun modified to fit the repo barrels? I would think that a competant gunsmith could fit the damascuss barrels back to the gun. I would make sure the damascuss barrels are safe to shoot befor you go to the expense of having them fitted.

[B. Dudley]

There is no real reason why the original barrels would not fit. The only reason they wouldn't is if for some reason a new roll joint was fitted to the frame for the Repro barrels.

Either way, the Damascus barrels could be fitted up. One way or another.

[Dean Romig]

When fitting a second set or replacement set of barrels the ONLY modifications that should be done are to the barrels ONLY, not the gun. Once the gun is modified to fit the barrels it is exceedingly difficult to modify the original barrels to fit the gun.

[David Noble]

Joe, in your other thread someone said the serial number identified the gun as a GH, if the gun was originally an extractor gun perhaps the damascus barrels are still extractor. These would not fit on a receiver that was changed to an ejector setup without some fairly involved modification.

[Joe Graziano]

Very good info gents. By serial number it was identified as a GH. According to the seller, it is a GHE. I will wait to receive both gun and original barrels. From there I will have a gunsmith check all to see if it would work. Ideally, I would like to shoot both sets of barrels. I shall see if that is possible. Thanks for your help.

[B. Dudley]

You would know right off the bat if the extractor barrels, if that is what they are, will physically fit the frame or not.
Likely they will not fit 100% if the gun was converted to ejectors. Since as I mentioned above, the roll joint would have been changed to the ejector type. This possibly throwing off the fit.
Those barrels would likely be able to be fitted to the frame, and be made to be used as extractor barrels. However, this would require you having an extractor forend, and also slots will have to be milled out in the forend iron to be able to clear the ejector trips as all will work correctly.
The only other issue that will be faced is that with the extractor barrels, the shells will
Not be lifted out as high as normal, making shell extraction with the hands a little more difficult. This is because of the fact that the ejector roll joint is of a different design than the extrator one.

There are a lot of unknown scenarios here. Best to get the gun and figure out exactly what you are dealing with and then figure out what you can and cannot do.

[Joe Graziano]

Gents, I finally got the gun and barrels and you probably have seen, I posted about getting them restored. It turns out, the original barrels are also electors and they fit the gun perfectly. I will have the checked for safety and then the damascus pattern restored. This will make a very sweet two barrel set, 26 and 28, repro and original Parker damascus steel. I'm not sure what the chamber length would be and the chokes. Is there a way of knowing the chambers based on the date of manufacture? The serial is 115216, dating to 1902.

[Dean Romig]

The chambers should be either 2 9/16" or 2 5/8".

[B. Dudley]

Likely your gun was fitted with Repro barrels to make it "safe to shoot" as more of a precautionary measure. Or maybe the Damascus barrels are in fact unsafe. Best to check them out.
It is really good that you have the original barrels with the gun still and if they are good to shoot, then even better. So there is no value loss to the gun and you have the Repro barrels to shoot all the modern ammo you want.