Min Bbl Thickness - for woods usage (grouse/wc)

[Dean Romig]

Francotte is a great gun and had, for a long time, been underappreciated. In the last decade or so the prices on good francottes have been continually rising. Some friends own some dandy little small bore Francottes and they love them. So congratulations on finding one that fits your needs.






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[Katrina Wood]

I got the gun! Fortunately a friend was able to check MWT for me, and I should be good at .035/.030” and gun choke is CYL and SKT so ideal for woodcock and grouse! Dimensions of stock could not be more ideal either! Literally could not have done better had I ordered a bespoke gun ... I have never had a gun that truly fits, and I am beyond tickled! 5# 5 oz of delightful little doublegun JOY!!!

Now I just need to get my deer so I can get out in the woods with it!!!

Thanks for all the helpful comments guys!

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Katrina Wood

I got the gun! Fortunately a friend was able to check MWT for me, and I should be good at .035/.030” and gun choke is CYL and SKT so ideal for woodcock and grouse! Dimensions of stock could not be more ideal either! Literally could not have done better had I ordered a bespoke gun ... I have never had a gun that truly fits, and I am beyond tickled! 5# 5 oz of delightful little doublegun JOY!!!

Now I just need to get my deer so I can get out in the woods with it!!!

Thanks for all the helpful comments guys!

Don't trade it! It's the folly of many who think they can find a better gun. Better to just add to your collection. Good shooting!

[Reggie B]

Originally Posted by Garry L Gordon

Don't trade it! It's the folly of many who think they can find a better gun. Better to just add to your collection. Good shooting!

Those are words of wisdom.

[Harold Pickens]

Nothing wrong with Francotte's. I'd buy a 20 in a heartbeat. I had a 12 that I traded off for a GH 16

[Cold Spring]

Just a comment fwiw from one who's long been interested in vintage doubles and their gunsmithing; it was decades ago when a mentor told me that Parkers have "soft barrels" (steel hardness). Surely a subjective statement and I kind of forgot it until I invested in tooling to do vintage-type re-choking on makers that did taper chokes in their guns. Since then I've opened tight chokes in Foxes, steel-barreled Parkers and Syracuse Lefevers, along with Ithaca, LC Smith and some other makers. It's easy to gauge the cut rate while turning a piloted taper choke reamer from the breech end, and ime Parker steel barrels typically are easiest to ream while opening chokes with that setup. Also, LCS barrels are usually at the other end of the range, much harder. Now, regarding barrel denting while guns are in the field, woods hunting, you can infer what that might mean.

Again this post is merely for info/fwiw. Please, I'm not looking to do tapered-choke work except on my own guns and on occasion for good friends.

[Dean Romig]

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[Mike of the Mountain]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

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I'm probably 15-20 years younger than the rest of youse guys!!!! Just 'cause I have replacement parts and am scheduled for another one soon does not make me old, just well used!!

[Drew Hause]

Just to clarify, that .020 - .025" MWT refers to the distal 1/3 of the barrel. Which of course is most likely to get whacked.

Thanks (mostly) to Dave Suponski we have composition data on a few Parker barrels
A pre - WWI Parker “Titanic” barrel - AISI 1030 with low concentrations of nickel and chromium.
A pre - WWI Parker “Trojan” barrel - AISI 1035.
A pre - WWI Parker “Vulcan” - AISI 1015
A post-WWI Parker “Vulcan” barrel - AISI 1030.
A “Parker Steel” barrel was non-standard Acid Bessemer Resulphurized Rephosphorized AISI 1109 low carbon Steel.

Lower carbon (in general) = softer steel. Scroll down about 2/3 here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...EK8OtPYVA/edit

Comparative results are summarized at the bottom

[Big D]

Pictures, Pictures! We gotta see it!