Anyone Know About Parker Shotguns?…..(pics)

Depends on the maker & condition of the Bores Hoot…
Been a few metallurgical studies done over the years comparing the relative strengths of Damascus versus “fluid Steel” barrels and the thing is with top makers, {particularly European} with unpitted up bores the Damascus barrel sets were stronger than plain Steel.
Much of the talk regarding Damascus being weak came about due to the extremely low quality barrel sets that were being used on the majority of doubles sold in the States in the late 19th century, I am referring to the Sears & Robuck specials, not Colts, Parkers, Smiths and other high grade guns.
A great case in point regarding Damascus strength can be found where higher grade English & German Damascus guns were more common. For example I used to import antique vintage Damascus guns from New Zealand, Australia & South Africa…thing was these guns were still in continuous use with Smokeless shells regardless of their Damascus tubes.
Facts are American steel in the 19th Century was of rather spotty quality until the advent of the Bessemer process.
Here’s one that will blow folks away…
The Steel used by Smith & Wesson up through the late 19th Century was of such marginal quality that during the manufacturing process voids would often open up on frames. So what did S&W do? The simply filled the offending void with hard solder and concealed the repair under Nickle plate! Ran into this twice after stripping #3 S&W revolvers…at least today the voids can be fusion welded closed but needless to say its a serious pain.
Anyways here in the States we grew up being schooled that Damascus was dangerous partially due to the abundance of poor quality guns & partially due to the Firearms industries campaign to obsolete older guns in their effort to sell the consumer new “safer” guns
In England top end firms continued to use Damascus well into the Nitro era and in fact its not uncommon at all to find a Damascus tubed Hollis, Greener, Westley Richards et al with Nitro Smokeless proved barrel sets bearing in mind the English were hard core about their proofing.

Black powder cartridges only.

Smokeless powder will burst the barrel.