Parker Rib

[Craig Budgeon]

Roy, my #1 frame DH was built as a 12ga. Damascus gun in 1892.In 1941 the current owner replaced those barrels with steel barrels built and fitted by Remington in 16ga. It wasn't unusual for Parker to build an extra set of barrels in the next smaller gage for a new owner of a used gun. If that CHE still has your interest call Lefever Arms and see if they have records of fitting the barrels. DelGrego worked with Lefever back then and it may have gone through his shop before completion.

[B. Dudley]

Lefever likely did the work. They have been out of business since the '90s, so trying to contact them would not get you far. And Delgrego, maybe... True that back in the day, most of their hardcore smithing work was contracted out to Lefever, but supposably, Delgrego only keeps records based on customer name. Not serial numbers, so unless you know the name of who had the work done, you are again, up a creek.

Best to just take the gun for what it is. A re-barrel. My firm feeling on it being from Lefever is the rib matting since they had one of the machines and it was operational.

I recently was in communication with an old employee of Lefever who ran the matting machine there. He told me about how the machine worked and how they had to get it running again after aquiring it and it worked ok, but never as it did at the factory since parts had been taken from it before they got it. He said the taper was something they could never get the machine to do.

[Craig Budgeon]

Brian as you can see my memory is better than my ability to stay current. Back in the day when that CHE was rebarreled, 16 ga. guns could be purchased for 2/3's the price of an equivalent 12 ga. guns, damascus guns were pretty but unsafe to shoot and cheap, and steel barreled guns were much more plentiful and desirable. When I toured LeFever Arms in 1973 (?) all the barrel sets left were either 1 1/2 or 1 frame sets and mostly 16 ga. At that time I'd say they may of had 12-15 sets left. To you young guys out there reading this, a new family car could still be purchased for under $3000 and Herschel Chadick hadn't sold his first Parker yet.