Wall-hanger or shooter?

[Mike Franzen]

Tom, if you are serious about finding out if your gun can be safe to shoot then you need to send it to Kirk Merrington. He will evaluate what you have and make recommendations how to proceed. Most of us posting here will not give advice on the safety of any set of barrels. The best we can possibly do is point you in the most prudent direction and hope you can make a good choice. Anyone telling you anything absolute about the safe, shootability of your barrels from a post on the internet is a fool and anyone taking that advice is foolish as well. The barrels are the single most important aspect of a gun. There are only a handful of truly qualified experts that can telll you whether or not the barrels are safe, can be repaired, should be altered or be replaced. I recommended Mr. Merrington because I have used him for this exact same situation. One thing I would like to see you do is post the guns serial number on this thread.

[Southpaw]

Tom you have come to right place and unfortunately silence maybe deafening on this issue. I have found that there are a lot of reasonable minded people and experts when it comes to these guns on this forum and it sounds like you have heard from some trusted industry professionals as well . Btw there are not many on here that will wave the surrender flag on any old gun and they like to see them restored if possible, but clearly there are limitations. Essentially I have come to learn here that the term "wall hangar" pisses some folks off and because there has been some history of disparaging old Damascus or twist steel barrels. But even then they look closely at safety issues even with fluid steel barrels if they hear pitting in the chambers.

Also I know it was holiday weekend but I have seen some folks that would typically defend the use of damascus barrels posting on other threads topics but not post anything or really weighing in regarding your thread seeking an opinion. I am not speaking for the forum and not rendering an opinion about the forum or anyone in particular but just noting an observation.

Btw I leave you with a question knowing what you know at this point. Is the risk reward worth it. Only you know the answer to that one. All I know is that I would hate to hear about you as part of statistic case study. Other than that welcome to the forum and let us know what you find. BTW if you really want an Old Parker 12 gauge underlifter model, there are better candidates available for purchase and use that don't have issues at such a critical part of a guns operation.

[todd allen]

I would like to see some pictures, to get a better idea of what we're considering here.

[Tom Goldasich]

Thank you all again. I'm going to close the subject now. The only use I can think of, other than a parts-gun, is theatrical use. Someone can cut down the bbls for an "alley-cleaner" in the best Old West tradition. I do not have a decent camera.

The serial #4162.