Biggest frame size for a 20 ga?

[Researcher]

Well, here it is again. This gun was a 2-frame GH-Grade built in 1889, with very straight and heavy 32-inch Damascus barrels with a requested weight of 9 1/2 pounds. As an aside, my Grandfather's 1890 PH-Grade 12-gauge is on a 3-frame but its cylinder bore 30-inch barrels swamp very fast, and it weighs 8 pounds 8 ounces. At some point in its life my GH-Grade lost two inches from its 12-gauge barrels. While Mark could find nothing in the records for it, my belief is it was back to Meriden sometime after 1918 but before about 1927, and got a set of 32-inch, 3-inch chambered, Vulcan Steel 20-gauge barrels. Both sets of barrels have the post-1910 bolt plate, and of course the receiver has the new bolt. The 20-gauge Vulcan barrels have the CT USA address, but do not have the Parker Bros. Overload Proof stamps. The 20-gauge 2-frame barrels swamp in very fast. The gun currantly weighs 9 pounds 0.5 ounces with the 12-gauge barrels and forearm in place and 8 pounds 4.5 ounces with the 20-gauge barrels and forearm in place. Makes Parker Bros. statements on the extra barrel listing shown on page 35 of the currant issue of Parker Pages untrue?!?

[Researcher]

The big 20-gauge guns had a flash of popularity shortly before WW-I. The famous Widgeon Duck Club guns being, of course, the great Parker Bros. example. The J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. also introduced their No. 200 pump gun for 20-gauge shells up to 3-inch about 1913. Several of the early graded Ansley H. Fox 20-gauges were chambered for 3-inch cases. In those days the max load available from the manufacturers in the "standard" 2 1/2 inch 20-gauge shell was 2 1/4 drams of bulk or 2 1/2 drams equiv. of dense smokeless powder and 7/8 ounce of shot. However, in the longer shells they would load 2 1/2 drams or drams equiv. and 7/8 ounce of shot.

Around 1911, Edwin Hedderly the famous California sportsman and editor of Western Field magazine did a lengthy series on his experiments with high velocity smallbore loads. He got several long barrel smallbore guns from Parker Bros. I have records for a 32-inch DHE 20-gauge, a 32-inch DHE 28-gauge, a 32-inch A-1 Special 20-gauge and a 32-inch A-1 Special 16-gauge. Fellow member Kevin McCormack had been in the process for some time of transcribing these articles in the hope of republishing them. Maybe someday?

Maybe the interest in getting ones long barrel smallbore on a big frame came from reports of Hedderly blowing up the DHE 20-gauge!!!!

[Dean Romig]

Good stuff Dave. I, too, hope Kevin is puts an article together on this information.

Originally Posted by Dave Noreen

Maybe the interest in getting ones long barrel smallbore on a big frame came from reports of Hedderly blowing up the DHE 20-gauge!!!!

Interesting bit of information there... can you expand on it?.... how he blew the gun up and any known particulars?

Dean