doublegunshop.com - home

You guys got to quit playing fast and loose with the term "Magnum" in relation to North American shotgunnery. The first time our North American manufacturers used the term "Magnum" for a shotgun and/or shotgun shell was in 1932 with the introduction of Ithaca's NID Magnum-10 and the Western Super-X 10-gauge 3 1/2 inch Magnum shell for it.

There was a photo in one of the earlier Parker books (Larry Baer author) showing a 20 gauge DHE built as one of two guns purchased by an east coast duck club in the Teens. It had factory 3" chambers...

Researcher, do you have a couple of rooms for your library of paper work on old shotguns and shells ? I can still remembering my mother taking me over to the county library and looking up the section for gun related books. I'd usually end up with Greeners big thick book to take home but have to bring back in 3 days. I'm always so amazed at all the info you present on the different gun web sites. Thank you very much for sharing some of what you have.

I wish I knew how to post pictures off my iPhone. I have a picture of the barrel lugs that looks factory original. Under one barrel it clearly shows a JG in an oval and 3 in. MAG. the middle has a 12 sideways 2; the other barrel has a V in a circle, HT over A and a large 4 smaller 2.

I assume the 4-2 is the barrel weight, V = V grade, HT over A proof marks? Anyway, this looks to me like a later Parker that truly is a 3� Magnum.

Blame it on G.E. Lewis. I don't have the date of this ad, but VL&D were the U.S. agents for G.E. Lewis in 1923.



Greener used the term in the 1907 edition of "The Gun"
https://books.google.com/books?id=3HMCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA378&vq

Then there were all the "Long Rangers". Parker "Long Range" in the 1894-95 Montgomery Ward catalog

Close but no cigar!! The pictures on page 36 and 37 of Larry's 1980 combined book of his two previous books from 1974 and 1976, are from the famous Widgeon Duck Club near Visalia, California. There were eight guns in that order to R.F. Cross Hardware Co., seven DHEs and one BHE. The gun Larry showed was the J.A. Hannah gun. Here is the hang-tag for the gun --



The tag shows it wasn't targeted with the hottest 20-gauge loads offered at that time of 2 1/2 drams of bulk smokeless powder or 20 grains of dense smokeless powder such as Infallible or Ballistite pushing 7/8 ounce of shot, but rather the lighter 2 1/4 dram load --



I don't know what Larry was talking about when he stated they were made "with 3-inch chambers for the then revolutionary "ajax heavy" 20-gauge magnum shells." The shells he pictures with the gun are Peters IDEAL with the standard load of the day of 2 1/2 drams of E.C. pushing 7/8 ounce of shot.

While I do have a pretty serious collection of Western Cartridge Co. paper, a lot of ammo catalogs are available on the International Ammunition Association web site, but for as long as I've been looking at it, Winchester and U.S. Cartridge Co. are "coming soon."

My best guess is that the "3 in. MAG." was stamped on the barrel flat by the gunsmith that hogged the chambers out to 3-inch.

If you want, email the picture to AHFCA@comcast.net and I'll post it. You still haven't told us the serial number of the gun.

Same fella?

Thanks, I�ll do that. I�ll ask what the serial number is.