New member with 12 Gauge Parker - 1883

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Jim,

As a family heirloom your gun is great! Most of us do not have a family Parker.

Restoration on a lower grade Parker is a financially losing venture. It will however give you an object of beauty to treasure. Here are photos of a Grade 2 "G" with the metal restored. The decision is up to you.

Many of us only have the Damascus barrels refinished on these old guns. That is acceptable and costs about $400 depending on the condition of the barrels.

[Jim Morris]

Mark,
Thanks to you and the other folks who offered excellent advice. I think I will clean it up with gun oil and elbow grease and leave it as is. Then I will pass it down the line to my son. It is nice to have a piece of family history that has been around for 130 years.

You guys have put together a nice forum. I appreciate your experience and your generous help.
Regards,
Jim

[edgarspencer]

Jim, Welcome to the PGCA.
In your 4th picture, I'm seeing something I have not previously seen in a grade 2 hammer. Could you take a close up of that hammer, maybe even both hammers.
I am generally on the side of not restoring a gun, when original condition is acceptable wear, and not abuse.
I don't know if you are a shooter, but I am and have a variety of pieces to take out. I have a grade 2 16 that was reasonably well restored before I bought it, and I think it's one reason why I take it out often and enjoy the heck out of shooting it. The monetary value of a 30" 2 frame 12 is not a huge amount, so the argument that it's value is diminished by restoration is marginal at best. There is little argument that the cost of the restoration will not be recovered if you sold it, but since you are unlikely to sell a family gun, that, too is moot.
If I were in your situation I think I would get the gun back on face and into a shooting condition. Try it out at some sporting clays, or trap, and then decide. If you do decide to go further, seek out the advice of hammer gun people. There are well know gunsmiths out there whose case color restoration is just plain wrong on these guns, and a few who have a good handle on what it should look like.
There are a few good, and relatively affordable gunsmith's who can get your gun back to looking like the pictures Mark has posted of his. There are a variety of good smokeless loads which are safe, and adequate for hunting or clay busting. Barrels used on a grade 2 are very sound and, providing they are checked for this, are every bit as safe as steel barrels, providing you don't use excessively potent loads. Anything in the 1200 FPS range is fine.

[Eldon Goddard]

I would try to get it into shooting condition. I can not speak for the hammer guns(yet!!) but once you start shooting these guns you get addicted. I try not to worry about value. I am sure by the time I am done with my Parker will have way more in to it than it is worth.

[Dollar Grade]

Jim,
Your Parker is a nice transition gun from the lifters to the top levers. If you look close at Marks gun there is no dolls head extension going into the top of the action, like the lifters. Marks gun also has no rib matting (squiggles on the top of the rib). There were only about 1200 top levers made with no dolls head extension, as apposed to 35,200 with the dolls head extension. Yours has the dolls head extension but still no matting on the top rib. In about 1886 all of the the Parkers built had the matting on the top rib. The ribs were matted so that there was a non glare surface along the sighting plane.

You have a nice piece of family history. A nice display case is in order.

Kurt