.577 Parker Hale Musketoon.

[tacfoley]

Just had a message to say the gun has arrived at my RFDs place. Going over on Friday is there Any definitive way of
being sure its an English Parker Hale and not an Italian made one. i.e.; serial number ??? Tim.

1. The words 'PARKER~HALE LIMITED, BIRMINGHAM' stamped in a line, read from the left-hand side, on the barrel immediately in front of the backsight. Note that the hyphen is not '-', but '~'.

2. The serial number is stamped in 2.5mm-high numbers very close to the wood immediately where the breech meets the wood on the left-hand side of the barrel.

3. Underneath the breech [take it out of the wood], Birmingham proof house stamps of crossed sceptres with date letters and numbers, and the designation .577cal - 3.5 DRAMS.

4. ON the knox form, level with the nipple - Crown over BP - read looking up the barrel.

4. The Parker-Hale cartouche to be found stamped into the rear right-hand side of the stock - 3" from the butt-plate - PARKER-HALE LTD - in a circular stamp that looks like the base of a cartridge.

This is a rough guide to serial numbers, until David Minshall answers email -

0 - 9000 total gun is Parker-Hale manufacture.

90001 - 14000 - Parker-Hale barrels only.

Above 14001 - totally Italian and should therefore have Italian proof marks as usual - GVT, PN, date letters BF onward in a little box, Made in Italy, Gardone val Trompia etc.

Please note - VERY important!!!!

MANY original Parker-Hale Musketoons were actually made and sold as wall-hangers - smooth-bored and with the underneath of the barrel drilled through to render them unfireable. There is NOTHING to show this without taking the barrel out of the wood and looking - the hole can be anything between and 1/8th to a 1/4" diameter into the breech from the six-o'clock position.

Needless to say, trying to shoot one of these is a recipe for disaster - PLEASE ensure that yours is NOT one of them.

tac