Odd Lifter Gauge… Opinions?

[ArtS]

I have one very similar to that with decarbonized barrels and a few hundred higher serial number. It has barrels that are right at .750. The early guns up through 1880 and a little later normally had oversize bores. The 12 gauge standard was a true 11 gauge barrel and the 10 gague was a true 9 gauge barrel. I believe your gun is a 12 gauge with the standard barrels (11 gauge) for the period. This came about from the original thin wall brass shells of the period. A factory letter for my gun showed that it was returned 30 years later to have it rechambered for the later larger diameter paper shells in order to shoot the current standard ammo.

I suspect the left barrel was opened up sightly at some time to either clean up pitting or to provide some choke in the left barrel. Many doubles of this period had no choke from the factory due to being made at the end of the muzzleloader era. Your gun was likely made around 1869-1870. The lookup shows that it was made pre-1974. Unfortunately the records check shows there is no info from which to generate a factory letter. Mine only recieved one because of the later rechambering. Either way, it is a very nice example of one of the first 1000 pin lifter Parkers and is a better than standard grade due to having Damascus barrels, front action locks and nice wood. There are very few of these around and are now becoming much harder to procure by people who are trying to round out collections. No way to tell, but there were a very limited number made, many fewer survive, and ones in that shape are rare.

[Aron Cochran]

Thank you for the info. I found it very strange there was no gauge/bore marking on the water table. Sounds like it is just an early gun with a goofy bore size. It’s unfortunate this gun is too early to letter and research. If anyone thinks they can provide more info with additional photos or measurements- let me know and I will gladly provide what I can.
Thanks again for taking the time to provide the information.