Reversed chokes : Why?

[Mills]

My letter says full/full and that is what they are, but the fuller full is the right barrel.

I guess it could have been modified, but it still begs the question why would someone deliberately put the barrels in that configuration.

I have noticed a few other vintage guns in that configuration, so it seems there were a minority of people who liked the configuration for some reason.

[Bill Murphy]

Parker Brothers allegedly pattern tested guns to a specific number of pellets in the target. It is assumed that each barrel may have required a different amount of constriction to reach the required pattern.

[Setter Man]

Bill,

The one I owned was ordered that way. I sold the gun last year and the letter went with it. I'll see if I happened to keep a copy.

J

[Bob Brown]

I have a DH 12 with full right, cylinder left in the 30" barrels and it lettered that way. I've posted about it before. IIRC it was made for a pro shooter named Kellerman. I've often wondered why he ordered it with that choke configuration. It is a relatively light 7 lbs on a 1 1/2 frame.

[Bill Murphy]

I have a set of 26" Titanic barrels that are bored .040 in the right and .000 in the left. I don't have a letter to prove that it was bored that way at Parker Brothers. I may get a letter, although I don't have the rest of the gun.

[Kensal Rise]

Originally Posted by Bob Brown

I have a DH 12 with full right, cylinder left in the 30" barrels and it lettered that way. I've posted about it before. IIRC it was made for a pro shooter named Kellerman. I've often wondered why he ordered it with that choke configuration. It is a relatively light 7 lbs on a 1 1/2 frame.

This arrangement of chokes is advantageous when the first shot taken is often further out than the second. An example of this situation might be incoming waterfowl. It is wise to wait as they approach, take a distant bird, then swing onto a closer one. It also makes sense if you miss first shot on an incomer...

[Mills]

That seems to be the consensus on here. I am sure a large percentage of Parkers shot waterfowl back in the day

[Gunner]

To stir the pot a bit, my 12 ga. DH with 25"bbls was ordered from the factory right hand modified and left hand cylinder and was shipped weighing in at 6#, 8 oz. This hardly seems to fit my concept of a waterfowl gun although I'll admit that I am not a waterfowler.

Ordered and shipped in 1906 it predates skeet.

One poster on that gun's thread suggested that the gentleman ordering the gun followed his preference to pull the back trigger first and the forward second which makes some sense to me.

My other thought on this particular gun is that the right bbl modified choke/front trigger was for upland birds and the left bbl cly choke/rear trigger is for deer or large game load, making it a dual purpose game gun. Anyone else with a historic sense sportsmen's preferences a century ago think this is reasonable or likely?

Best,
Erick

[Big D]

If the owner was left-handed, the chokes would be correct.

[J. A. EARLY]

Don't have to special order to get the gun to shoot tighter barrel first. Picked up a 16 SW. Put the shell in the right barrel to pattern it. Pulled trigger, nothing. Looked at shell, tried again, nothing. Put the shell in the left barrel, pulled trigger nothing. Eventually I'll catch on to stuff like this.

Someone had reconfigured the trigger locations for front trigger-left and back trigger-right. Not an accident I am sure.