doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Scott Gas Check patent - used on rifles?

It would be nice to know the conversation between the owner of the Parker and the gunsmith who cut the gas check system in it... and the reason it was done in the first place. I can easily understand why it would have been done on a hammerless gun - the blowback through the firing pin holes in the breech has been blamed for damage to the stock head (splitting/chipping) but a hammer gun would never suffer these kinds of mishaps IMO.

Incidentally, there are no non-Parker stamps anywhere on this Parker, so apparently it was done after the patent had expired.

There are records (with the gun) of it having gone to Prechtel for "overhaul" in 1914, 1915, 1916, and lastly 1920 but it doesn't address anything else that may have been done to it other than being sent back in 1920 ten days after it's overhaul date because "lever does not work."

Not getting much further on whether big-bore 1880-90's rifles used the Scott Gas Check patent.

But there's a second bug in my ear about this patent mentioned above, which no doubt the knowledgable members could answer. "Was the gas check patent only for use with black powder." i.e With the change-over to smokeless powders c 1900....did this obviate the need for the Gas Check?

I'm not a general gun historian but that patent might be sort of a marker of some sort if it were solely applicable to black powder.

1920's French Saint-Etienne SxS 12 bore shotgun - no gas check: