Another NH!

[charlie cleveland]

you can bet you want feel much recoil in that gun with that weight...with 1 1/4 ounce loads she willbe very gentle on shoulder.and i bet even with the old 1 5/8 ounce load it still will be gentle on shoulder...cant wait till you shoot and pattern this gun and tell us about it... charlie

[John Farrell, Charter Member #33]

Was someone at Parker Bros. looking at a design with twist barrels and able to handle smokeless powder hot hunting loads? There has to be a correlation between the thickness of the barrels, the period when twist was going away and steel tubes were coming in. An executive's decision to see if twist could stay around a little longer by bulking them up some? Looking at the rough chambers and muzzle finish it could be a sample for the engineers to study. in the dark?

[Roundsworth]

John, I also wondered why twist barrels were being used, well into the fluid steel and smokeless era. My other NH is on a number 3 frame with 32 inch twist barrels also. It was made in 1906 and the barrels are almost 2 pounds lighter than this NH!

[Roundsworth]

According to my letter, this gun was ordered December 12, 1902 by Sutcliffe & Co. in Louisville, Kentucky. Instructions stated to ship the gun to S. Sankey in Hatchechubbee, Alabama. It was shipped June 8, 1903. The requested weight was 12-1/2 pounds, but shipped at 12-3/4 pounds. Cost was $70.00. The chokes could not be determined.

[J.B. Books]

What a gun! It is essentially an 8 gauge (.835 standard) with 10 gauge chambers. I would think the long range patterns would be superb to incredible as that is quite an overbore in a 10ga. 13 pounds is going to really tame the recoil of the heaviest loads in 2 7/8". When it was built 1 1/4 ounce was the heavy load. 13 pounds however is a beast of a gun and getting it to your shoulder quickly will take some muscle. Last year I actually slightly sprained my arm/shoulder by grabbing/mounting/swinging on a crow that surprised me and my gun is a mere 10 pound 5 ounces. Once swinging on a target the inertia of 13 pounds is going to make stopping your swing a lot less likely. What a neat gun.

[Roundsworth]

Thanks, Pete! I will be sure to get her out in the woods next fall for a 'nostalgia hunt'. I won't feel too bad if I don't fare so well with flushing Ruffed Grouse. On the other hand, if I see a bird scampering off the edge of the trail 60 yards away (as it happens so often!) I may stand a chance

[Roundsworth]

Here are some photos of the forend. There was quite a bit of finish under the crud, actually, with the exception of the entire checkered portion. The checkering was filled in with 100+ years of various types of funk, also! I applied two coats of 'Tom's 1/3 Mix', followed with a coat of Johnson's Paste Wax. I have used 'Tom's' on numerous other old guns that had remnants of original finishes. I think it will help to preserve what's left, plus, it gives a nice mellow(?) look, not glossy or tacky.

[Bill Murphy]

I don't understand the .830 bore. It sounds like an eight bore gun that has had ten gauge chamber sleeves put in it. Of course, the gun is in the SB as a ten gauge, not an eight. I may have posted earlier that my #6 frame ten weighs 13 1/2 pounds. That is way heavier than it probably was as an eight, but it has eight gauge barrel profiles and standard ten gauge bores with 3 1/2" chambers.

[Twice Shooter]

Mark, Can you give some more information on "Tom's". Is it a cleaner or polish or finish? Thanks, Tom

[Bruce A Lyons]

AND I THOUGHT I HAD A BIG TEN