Parker Hale Musket date of manufacture

[mserio]

Just picked up a Brit-made Parker Hale 2-band musket. Could any of you fine folks direct me to a web site where I can determine its year of manufacture? Many thanx!!!!

Mike Serio
14th Mississippi Infantry Regiment

[TexReb]

I have a first generation P-H 3 band P1853 that I used in reenacting back in the 80s. It was partially defarbed- good by the standards of the day but, it would fall short by todays standards now that there are those who do it for hire.

Anyway to address your particular question, I can't give you any definitive info but I did a little research for you. There was one forum with a thread devoted to the PH 2-bander.... M1858? Here it is... http://www.jouster.com/forums/showthread.php?15376-Let-s-discuss-late-70-s-Parker-Hale-2-Band-Enfields-that-had-short-lived-barrels

Here's another general PH discussion... http://www.researchpress.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1299943266

Here's one more site that might be of particular interest. I'm saving it myself...http://www.researchpress.co.uk/parkerhale/index.htm

There is some comment about some numbers on the bottom of the barrel providing the date when the barrel was made and that should help you out.

[Smosin]

If you closely study the proof marks on your PH and compare them to published information you should be able to accurately establish the exact year of manufacture.
http://www.hallowellco.com/proof_date_codes.htm
http://proofmarks.tripod.com/englishproofs.html
Hope this helps!

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo11/Clermontny/BPH.jpg