All new wood. The original forearms were so worn down as to not really be salvageable. This gun was no closet queen!! I originally just gave Craig the gun with the 20-gauge Vulcan barrels, then about nine months in I decided to have Doug Ranes refinish the 12-gauge Damascus barrels and then send them and their forearm on to Craig.
According to my PGCA letter from Mark Conrad, #56213 was ordered on June 28, 1889, and shipped to Simmons Hardware in St. Louis, Missouri, as a 9 1/2 pound 12-gauge with 32-inch Damascus barrels which have a 5-8 weight stamp. No records on the 20-gauge barrels. The rib legend on the 32-inch 20-gauge Vulcan barrels is CT., U.S.A. which would put them after about 1918. In that they don't have the Parker Overload Proof oval, probably before 1927. They have the JG in oval on the left barrel flat, and V in circle, HT over A marks and a 4-5 weight mark on the right barrel flat. Both sets of barrels were fitted with the post-1910 bolt plate and of course the gun has the post-1910 bolt. I liberated the gun from a pawn shop in a Seattle suburb in this case --
Anyone have any idea about the number 153 stamped on the left barrel flat of the 20-gauge barrels?
I'll be on my spring drive up the Alaska Highway while you guys are at the Spring Southern.