DROP IN VALUE FOR OPENED CHOKES

[J. A. EARLY]

Originally Posted by Garry L Gordon

And the funny thing is that if we had a factory record that the gun had been returned to have the chokes opened in the past, we would value the gun highly. There's great irony in collecting. Things evolve. We've all seen the rise in value of Damascus barrels, and now I see restored/reconditioned guns by certain gunsmiths are being valued well. The guns are gems, and we value what they hold for us as our link to the past.

I believe the reason we would value it much more if the gun had been returned to Parker to have the chokes opened is that we would know it was done correctly, just as it would have if it left the factory. We can't be sure of all of the thousands of guns that were opened by other gunsmiths, many not as careful as Parker would have been with their very long choking system that we see in their barrels. The gun I was looking at, having been honed from .662 to .676 in 16 gauge was worrisome to me. Obviously not done by Parker. The .007 removed from the barrels only left .020 m.w.t. on the right barrel/cylinder side, which by the way is the choke with which it left the Parker factory.