the silent auction 8 ga

[charlie cleveland]

as most of us know there was a 8 ga parker in the silent auction ...well MILLS won that auction...as most know this gun was in the worst shape a parker could get in...it hadmore wiggle in it than a red worm trying to be threaded on a hook...seriosly there was a 3/16 gap between the barrel and breech face...there was a bent loop made out of 1/2 wide steel band that slipped on the barrels and down to the britch to keep the gun from opening...the gun would open and closed but there was very much play side to side...the barrels were so rusty you could not force a shell into the barrels...i would safely say this gun had not been fired in90years or better...you just cant imagine how this old gun was treated and abused...the stock has lots of breaks in it...a sheet of copper was used with nails and srews to strenthen the stock then they took copper wire and wrapped it around the copper patch and stock. then they silver soilder that wire all over.. it made for a very unusal patch but a strong one...surprizingly the hammers and firing pins worked pretty good... the barrels were 34 inch when they left the factory but are now 27 inches...the top rib has been replaced with a half inch tall piece of iron bar stock and has at least 2 lbs of silver soilder on the top rib and bottom of barrels.. the bottom of the barrels were the barrel latch is located had 1/4 inch of slack in it the weld had broke loose... MILLSwas really happy with this gun and was going to try and get it in shooting shape so he carried it down to DARLINGTON GUN WORKS AND THEY TOLD HIM IT WAS NOT WORTH FIXING...ANDi guess they were right money wise...so i had asked MILLS about the gun and he let me have the gun...... so i m gonna try to fix it.... charlie