Parker 3 inch guns

[Cold Spring]

Written by Capt Edward C Crossman, July 1926, in the Field and Stream magazine:

Parker Brothers are out with what they call Long Range guns with 3-inch chambers, mostly with 34 inch barrels. With all respect to the makers of one of the best guns in the world, all I have seen of such specimens were muzzle-heavy, like other makes of this type. They would cut down rather than add to a man's duck shooting ability at ordinary ranges and in the hands of a man of ordinary strength and duck shooting knowledge.


And here indeed is what Capt Crossman wrote in the same article after testing a L C Smith Long Range against two 3-inch Super-Foxes, no mention of "out ranging" by one maker or the other.

The new type Smith ….. also shot a mean of 80% or better, using Western Super X , 3-inch Ajax Heavies loaded to order, and some Western 3-inch cases with Western components loaded by du Pont to give nearly 1,000 feet with No. 4 shot

N.B. the 1,000 feet cited by the Cap is the average velocity between the muzzle and 40 yards, as shotgun velocity was reported in those days.