Need advice on potential restoration

[Bruce Day]

I do not know why it would need to be restored . It looks nice to me as is.

Here is my regular bird gun, an 1881 year on a 1 frame so it is lighter built than yours. You have a stout built shot gun and unless you find that the bores have been bored out excessively , I would load it and fire away. These are not delicate wall hangers.

Here is a Parker recommended load chart contemporaneous with your gun. I have several Parker hammer guns, some older some newer than yours and they get shot regularly . The first photo has black powder loads which which can be converted to drams equivalent .

The second table is from 1910 with DuPont smokeless powder loads .

[Drew Hause]

Welcome Chuck.
Just to clarify, those are black powder load recommendations. Smokeless (Nitro) powder was not in general use until about 1895.

Dennis Potter is in Muskego; a real gentleman and outstanding gunsmith
262-662-9990
He'll likely want to repair the cracks around the R lockplate inlet, and check the head of the stock also.