Food for thought

[Dean Romig]

I have two such letters from managers at Remington addressed to Parker customers. We can't be sure if they just believed the hype that had been foisted on the shooting public since about the turn of the century - or if they really knew the truth but perpetuated the lie for the sake of profit...?

From what I understand, Babe DelGrego had first-hand knowledge of hundreds of Damascus and other composite barrels that, at the time of the cessation of Parker production or soon thereafter, being hauled out the back door along with lots of other 'obsolete' parts and machinery and buried there just behind the building. This was told to me by Lawrence recently.






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[Drew Hause]

Parker- America's Finest Shotgun by Peter H. Johnson
"All of these barrels and tubes used by the Parker were made in and around Liege, Belgium. So far as the knowledge of still-living Parker officials goes, none were ever successfully made in the United States. These barrels, which were imported as 'rough tubes,' with a low tariff were reasonable in price and very beautiful; but with the advent of progressive burning powder after World War I they were doomed as they were unsafe to use with these new and more powerful powders. So at that time Parker Brothers, certainly not to be left behind by such a plain and inescapable necessity, discontinued the use of them and started making their own barrels from the latest American steel that had been developed during World War I.
It is interesting but hardly surprising to note that when Parker changed from figured barrels to those made of fluid steel the factory officials destroyed under a hammer all the barrels that they still had in inventory rather than run the risk of these barrels ever being used."

I suspect any remaining 'rough forged tubes' went to the WWII steel collection.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Drew Hause

Parker- America's Finest Shotgun by Peter H. Johnson
"...but with the advent of progressive burning powder after World War I they were doomed as they were unsafe to use with these new and more powerful powders.

I suspect that Mr. Johnson may have been innocently perpetuating the 'Dangerous Damascus' myth that we all know today to be untrue. A great many of us shoot Damascus barreled guns with modern powders. The thing we have learned NOT to do is to reload our own shells with a weight-equivalent measure of modern progressive smokeless powder that was measured in black powder back in the days before smokeless.


I would suspect that had fluid pressed steel barrels been in use during the time that the modern progressive burning powders were developed and put on the market, there would likely have been a lot of blown fluid steel barrels... and what would the gunmakers have blamed it on then???





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