20 gauge chamber length

[Drew Hause]

I'm with Dean. Since none of us can know the abuse to which our maybe 120 year old guns have been inflicted, it would seem prudent to use reasonable due diligence to at least establish that the chambers/barrels have not been modified, and to use loads ballistically equivalent to those for which the gun was originally designed.
Parker Bros. probably knew what they were doing, documented the load with which the gun was patterned on the hang tag, proved every gun, and built in a significant margin of safety.
It HAS been proven that the pressures generated by turn-of-the-century smokeless loads were quite similar to today's if at the same payload and fps

Though opinions were offered, the cause of this blow up, to my knowledge, was never established by a metallurgical failure analysis
http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/...=491058&page=1



A buddy was bidding against somebody's grandma at an auction in Liberty, Mo. on a Damascus barrel 16g Parker. Grandma won, and told him she wanted it for her grandson to use turkey hunting. She didn't believe him when he suggested that use with modern turkey loads would not be a good idea.

[Drew Hause]

Since this is a very frequent question, maybe in the "Help" section at the top of the Forum a "PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE SHOOTING YOUR PARKER" post could be generated? The FAQs seem to be overlooked.

I just added "Please review the General Information "Is my shotgun safe to shoot?" FAQ before using your L.C. Smith or Hunter Arms Co. Fulton shotgun." to the header of the LCSCA Forum.

[Ron Scott]

No wonder the neophyte is confused. In one place he finds Sherman Bell’s test results in the Winter 2001 DGJ article where he writes:

“With loads that are sensible in a light 2 1/2 inch gun, we see no dangerous pressure levels produced. I see no reason, related to safety, to modify an original 2 1/2 inch chambered gun to shoot 2 3/4 shells, if the 2 3/4 inch load you intend to use would develop pressure that is safe in that gun, when fired in a standard chamber.”


Then in another place he finds Larry Potterfield showing him how to lengthen the chamber of an antique Parker:

https://youtu.be/amBveFBnVgY