OK, so I have this Parker that I bought several years ago. The barrels have been cut off to about 18 inches. And they are really thin at the muzzle. I measure them between .001 to .002 in a couple of spots. (Equal to about three sheets of paper) So, what could happen if I went ahead and shot it to see if it shoots? It is a 16 gauge and I would love to see how it would do at skeet. But, could the barrels split? Could they blow up? I am really leary about shooting it.

Three sheets of paper is a lot thicker than .002" unless you mean toilet paper.

I guess it's all anecdotal at this stage, but I have seen guys shoot doubles with barrel so thin the muzzles were no longer a circle. They just looked like a ragged shirtsleeve.

I'm not sure why you need to shoot it to see if it shoots but if you just has to.....load it up and hold it at arm's length with a pair of welding gloves on and maybe even a motorcycle helmet. If it does blow it won't hurt you much. You'll be a hit at the Skeet field, no doubt!

yER not thinking with yer dip-stick Jammy...








I had you pegged as a closet cOwboy.

I think your decimal point is in the wrong place. Are you really talking about one to two thousandths or ten to twenty thousandths?

I just mic'd a sheet of 20lb printer paper & it measured .004". As I recall old lined note paper measured about .0035". Three sheets of these respetfully would = .012" & .0105".
Its rather obvious Jimmy isn't very mathamatically inclined or a very poor typist.
It is noted that Greener mentioned firing a gun whose bbls in this area had been reduced to about the thickness of "1" sheet of paper & they held up. After the test he ripped them with a pen knife.
I would be much more concerned with the thicknesses from breech to beyond my hand, how do they measure there??
PS; There will be no choke in these bbls so will be no concern of increased stress from the charge "Hitting the Choke".

Hundreds, thousands, ten thousands. OK. .01 to .02. (It has been a while since I took math). I would also like to use the gun as a home defense gun, but I would hate to use it and have it blow up on me. I wouldn't feel too bad about using it at the skeet range because Cowboy Shooting is very big in this area, (although I don't do it) and one of the events is shooting with a shortened barrel at skeet. One of the guys at our club brings out his "coach gun" all the time. So, I would just to try it out to see if the guy who rebuilt it did as good of a job as he said he did. If I could get longer barrels for it I would. But I am going to put a leather covered pad on it and leave it as is. Or maybe sell it as a cowboy shooter. So, thanks for the input. I'll try it out this weekend. Good luck.

Jimmy: You don't say what grade Parker that you have. If it's a high grade or small gauge it might be worth getting it re-barreled. If not, I would not shoot it under any circumstances and I would not sell it to a "cowboy shooter" to shoot. You may just be signing his death warrant. Sleeving or sub-gauge liners may be an option.

Just My Humble Opinion......George

Hi-I agree with George-If you want to test fire attach to a tire
and use a long string to fire from a safe distance
Sydney

Why would you ever consider using a gun you did not have 100% complete confidence in as a home-defense gun? If there was ever a moment you needed a gun to absolutely work as intended, this would be it.

Ken

No point in spending a lot on a home defense gun...the cops will just take it away and you'll ever see it again, assuming you kill some old boy with it.

It doesn't have to be expensive. But it better be 100% reliable.

If I am ever in a situation where I had to use a home-defense gun, the cost of losing the gun to confiscation would be the last thing I would be worried about.

I am now putting a leather pad on the gun to display my work to people who want to see my leather covered buttpads. My business has really begun to pick up the past few weeks. So that is my first intention. Second, I have never fired it because of the thin barrels and I probably never should have bought it to begin with because it is a low grade gun that would cost a lot more to rebarrel than it is worth. But I did not realize that when I bought it several years ago. I only paid $400.00 for the gun so now, I will probably either sell it as a parts gun or, as I said, sell it to a cowboy shooter and let them deal with sleeving it if they want to spend the money. I really don't. But the curiousity of firing it still lingered. I have already told people at my club, who I shoot with that I had a Parker with cut barrels that were probably too thin to shoot. So, it isn't like I was going to dump them on someone and let them get hurt. So, thanks for your opinions. I really do appreciate them.

About 30 years ago I knew a guy that spent 11 months and 29 days in jail for shooting a fleeing home intruder in the buttocks with a sawed off 12ga....'claimed the guy he shot had to have a rubber covered butt.

Ps...Caint wAit for the pics Jammy.

Jimmy;
Do you have the means of taking accurate wall measurements down the length of the bbl. "IF" it indeed has adequate wall thicknesss over the chamber & for at least 12" or beyond with the thiness being confined to the last 2"-3" inches near the muzzle, I would simply shoot it, especially if it is closer to the .020 than the .010. Also if you could mic the od prior to firing & then again after you could pick up if it began to swell, which would be more likely to happen than a split.
Many shotgun bbls actually enlarge as they near choke area with a thinner wall from around 18" to a little behind the choke area.
Many who are screaming with hysreria would likely be surprised at what some of the bbls measured around the 18" mark on guns they have shot for years.

Post deleted by Dave Weber

Jimmy,
Would you please post photos of your leather pad work?

Purty please...

Maybe he would if you posted a picture of that feller with the rubber covered hiney.

Ken's home defense weapon is a Diamond Grade Lindner Daly.

I don't know exactly what is being said here in the past few posts. I think Dave has deleted something and I have Jobby on my ignore list so I can't see anything he says...... So, I will answer the best that I can........ No, 2-piper, I only used a mike and measured the end of the barrels, so I can't accurately measure beyond that........ On The Wings Of A Dove, I can't really post pictures of my leather pads because my computer won't post them any more. For some reason, it won't pick up my pictures from my digital camera like it used to....... I did finish putting a leather pad on it last night and I took it to the shooting range today. None of the guys there thought the barrels were anything to worry about, so a few of us took it out and shot a box of shells through it from the #7 station at the skeet range. It took us a while to figure out that you have to shoot about a foot and a half under the target to break the birds from that station, but after that we ran a box through it and it shot fine. And, it looks pretty nice with the new leather covered pad. So, it should make a nice home defense gun if someone doesn't make me a good offer for it. So, thanks for the input from you guys. I really appreciate it. And, good luck.

I wouldn't worry about losing the gun if I shot anyone either. And as far as it being illegal, all one would have to say is that the burglar brought it into the house and you took it away and shoot him with it. Who is going to believe a burglar? Especially when he is dead. And besides, I bought it at a gun show and it isn't any different from a coach gun that you can buy anywhere. So, I agree, if they confiscate it, it really isn't worth that much anyway. Thanks for the input.

Jammy

Wouldn't that be considered tampering with a crime scene...not to mention perjury.