doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Baker Gun & Forging PictureTrail

Thanks to the contributions of Robert Chambers, Daryl Hallquist, Ross Berck, and Dave Noreen, and 'harvesting' all the incredible Baker pics from Greg Martin's site, I put together another album. I'm trusting I'm not gonna get sued, but was afraid they'd all be lost in the internet dumpster soon. Please let me know if you find any errors, and I'd be happy to add pics of any unique Baker guns if you'll send them by jpg attachment to revdoc2@cox.net and thanks! http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=17434920

Good job Rev!! Those don't look like farm boys on the cover of tha issue of The Baker Gunner!! I just scored a 1900 issue. Should be in the accumulated mail when I get home.

Neat Dave! If you could scan the cover, I'd sure like to add it to the album.
I still don't understand the pre-Folsom grading system. At least by the quality of damascus barrels used, it seems to be lower to higher B - A - K?? Is that correct? And what did 'K' stand for?
Thanks for graciously sharing all your knowledge!

K on the barrel or receiver flats stood for Krupp barrels. PKE would have Paragon Krupp Ejector. Early and late BG&F Co. guns were grade marked. Ones in the middle years usually weren't marked, except in the Batavia Series.

Thanks Daryl,but now I'm really confused. The 'K's I have up are Damascus barrel guns?!

I too, am having a little trouble with the grade no.s on top of the pictures. I see a BD and to my understanding B's were virtually A's with twist barrels, not Damascus. Can someone give me a run down on the grade system? I thought I had them figured out.

It's certainly possible that things are mis-labeled on the Greg Martin site. The 1909 Baker Gunner lists no "A" but:
Baker Grade “R” and Grade “S”
Baker Grade “B” and Hammer gun Grade “D” Twist
Baker Hammer “D” Damascus

revdocdrew, thanks so much for putting this together. I can't get enough info and pictures on these guns. A book on Baker would be nice! I trying to figure out in my shallow mind, how to burn your work to a disk.

I think this grading problem has been a real albatros on Baker guns all these years. A Parker Bros. GH-Grade was essentially the same in 1888 and 1942, whereas it seems every peice of Baker paper I pick up has things slightly different.

The only Bakers I've seen with obvious grade stamps are the later Folsom made guns. I'm sure many of you have looked at more then I have.

My take on this Baker grades business is that early on there was the B-Grade with twist barrels, the A-Grade with Damascus barrels, and the Paragon Grade with finer Damascus barrels and a bit nicer engraving, profiling and wood. Then, about 1897 they added the Baker $100 Pigeon Gun which was essentially a Paragon but with Pigeons in the engraving and steel barrels. A bit later the Damascus barreled Paragon was also called the P-Grade and there was an N-Grade that was a Paragon with Krupp steel barrels. Then they added an L-Grade Trap Gun which was somewhat fancier. I think that during this time frame Baker also built some fancier guns that weren't shown in any of the paper I've seen. Later over a period of time it seems the R- and S-grades were phased in as the A- and B-grades were phased out. Eventually Expert and DeLuxe grades were added to the line. Then the Paragon Model Nineteen Nine with different shaped lock plates and different bolting.

I never thought of it when I was doing my research on other old doubles there, but I wonder if The Library of Congress has any volumes of "The Baker Gunner." At the prices single issues go for on ebay, and how seldom they appear, assembling a complete set would be quite a task.

Rev, here are some pics of a later Folsom 16-gauge, 30-inch Black Beauty Special Ejector --

Rev, I don't know where you are seeing the K's. Give an example of the Grade, serial no. and where the marks are. A gun marked PK would be Paragon Krupp. Yes, many of the Greg Martin guns were missmarked.