"New" 10 Gauge/ More Photos

[Patrick Butler]

Update on my 10 (#40,966):

After using some snap caps, I ordered a mixed case of RST loads and stopped by a local gunsmith to have the barrel thickness checked before I lugged this 3 frame to the range.
A new guy there took the barrels into the back and came out after a few minutes with the bad news that he found the minimum thickness to be .015 (groan). This was long after the three day inspection period and I drove home kicking myself for not investing the $600 for a decent thickness gauge. I now had a $1720 wall hanger, and just planned to clean it myself.

A few months later I took a look at those fantastic photos posted here by Gary Carmichael Sr. in "Just another C grade" and called up the gun builder (Brad) who did the work. Brad was very nice on the phone, asked me several questions re this old Parker and finished with the suggestion that the measurements made might be incorrect and that I should try another gunsmith who worked a lot with doubles.

Finding a decent double smith in N California is no small job as most of the best have retired. I finally asked the folks at my local sporting clays range who worked on the 30+ over and under they had for rental and they referred me to a gunsmith in San Jose.
I watched, waiting for more bad news as he spent about thirty minutes checking out the full length of the barrels just making an occasional "hmm". At the end he said that the minimum thickness, and that was way out at just before the chokes, was .058 ! In addition, the barrels rang well, and the face was very tight and the bores looked great.

I called Brad up that day and mailed this old boy to him. Brad called me back the next week and confirmed all of the gunsmith's measurements, saying that the minimum thickness was over.058, he could find no cracks in the stock, and that what I thought were scratches on the bottom of the receiver were casting marks. He mentioned that this was one of the best condition hammer guns he had inspected that was of this age and that it looked like it had had very little use. I quickly agreed to his reasonable offer for a complete restoration and should have this old duck-killer back by December.

I'll post photos when it returns. This hammer forum saved my old Parker from the wall and it will be back in the field late this year. Thank you all for this great web site.