16 gauge Trojans with 3" chambers?

[Old and Reliable]

I went to the Stadt book and you are right- in the M21 chapter page 91 is shown the 3" unfired Winchester 16 ga. Leader shell, and a 1 ounce capacity- Then you mention later a 1 & 1/8th oz. load in the older 2 & 9/16" length 16 ga. shells-- Just for the heck of it-- let's take two identical VH 16 Parkers- std no. 1 size frame- 28" barrels, call them a 'matched pair'-- one has the 2 & 9/16" chambers, its brother has the 3"-- I would much rather fire the 1 oz. load in the 3" chambered gun, than the other- and I'll bet you'd see more uniform patterns on paper as well.

On balance, I tend to agree with Brother Romig here- the Trojan was the hardware store stock model, and except way later on in its life when they offered a single trigger, it was a basic boxlock extractor double with excellent function and plain finish- So never say never, but as Parker apparently liked to run the receivers through production in lots of 100, probably same for the barrels (and the lack of the std. Doll's Head on the Trojan) selecting a set from production for longer chambers- would entail more paperwork, etc.

I'll even go further- Once the Parker Trojan was introduced, it gradually became Parker's best selling grade- just as Houchin's book shows the Field Grade LC Smith accounted for 80% of Hunter Arms output-- If the Trojan and the VH(E) both came out on the open market the exact same year, and with the appropriate retail price differential, my guess is- the Trojan grade would have been the all-time sales leader-

If I were somehow transformed into a key management position with Parker Brothers- and was in charge from 1900 to 1930-- I would of course keep the Trojan and Vulcan- then the GH(E), DH(E) and AHE-- with the AAHE and A-1 Special and Invincible only on non-cancellable special order with a 60% downpayment on such orders--I would have phased out anything larger than 10 ga., moved away from the Hammer guns and into proof steel barrels over Damascus or twist earlier- Frame sizes would be Nos. 2 (std 10 and heavy 12) 1 & 1/2 for std 12- 1 for 16, and 0 for 20, 00 for 28 and 000 for the .410 bore-

Just reading Dave's excellent reply with all the details of the early shell variations- a monster for inventory and production control- ditto perhaps Parker's inventory of machined parts, fixtures and gauges- Wow!!

Thanks to all of you for your contributions- I may well be bidding on a few Colts, and I'll ask for the final hammer price on this Trojan offered by RIA--

[Bill Murphy]

There is no proof that RIA measured the chambers correctly. If someone is truly interested in the gun, they would request a PGCA letter. There is a possibility that a special order chamber length would be noted in the stock book entry.