12ga chambers, how short did they make them?

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

If we are interested in pure research, our researcher should be chiming in here with information on this gun. Oh well.

Bill, I agree more information from the records is nice to have. However our "researcher" as far as I know is a volunteer and he has done a great job on the letters I have ordered. I posted my observation and the serial number with a note to Mark because I saw he was reading the post yesterday. If it piqued his curiosity he could look into it if not no big deal. I would imagine his position as "researcher" could quickly escalate into an all time consuming unpaid job with dozens of requests to look this up and that up every day.

There are books filled with stuff about Parker that I don't know. I have been a student for years and will be one forever. If I run into something that is odd and unusual as the chamber length on this gun appears to be I will share it with all of you. Everyone is free to take it or take from it what they want. Facts are that the short chambers could be a slight difference in machining as Bob Fabian pointed out or it could have been ordered. There is also a chance we will never know for certain the how come and whys as there may be nothing in whatever records exist.

Bottom line; I found a 12ga DH with ultra short chambers. If one exists maybe more do. What I took away from this is I will not assume short chambers is always going to be 2 5/8" in 12ga, they could be much shorter. To me it 's all part of the unwritten rule of Parkers; never say never. To my mind these mysteries are great, 100 years from now nobody is going to be collecting Rem 870's and finding such differences to ponder.