Several years I trraded a very nice "D" grade Parker to a dealer for another gun I thought I couldn't live without. At the time, I knew very little about Parkers, but the dealer insisted that the 26" barrels had been cut. He showed me several other Parkers he had that had the blank space on the last 1/8" or so of the top rib. The pattern on my gun extended to the end of the rib. I didn't know what they were at the time, but now know that the keels were present in the end of the barrels. It seems, in general, that buyers of vintage doubles discount the value (sometimes substantially) of guns that have been altered (restocked, rebarrelled, or refinished), unless those alterations were done by the factory. In most cases, alterations done by the manufacturer seem to be acceptable as "original", at least as far as value goes and especially when documented. One of the most detrimental alterations is cut barrels. My curiosity was sparked when reading an old L.C. Smith repair price list which includes the cost for "cutting barrels", with the notation that this would remove chokes. I have to believe this was requested more than once for it to be included in the published repair list. And I would also conclude that Parker, Fox and Ithaca also had requests for this work. How would you feel about buying a high quality vintage double with shortened barrels if the job was documented as being done by the maker? How about if it looked original, but not documemted? This is assuming that the barrel length and chokes (or lack thereof) would be acceptable to you on an unaltered gun. Has anyone ever received a letter on a Parker or Smith that indicated the barrels had been shortened by the factory?
