New Member

[Dennis V. Nix]

I am a new member of the PGCA and would like to extend my greetings to everyone. To begin I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I am a retired Lieutenant from the CO Dept. of Corrections in Canon City, CO. I also have 10 years’ experience with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office in Santa Barbara, CA. Prior to that I was in the USMC from 1964-1968. From reading lots of posts on the forum I see that there a few Marines present. Semper Fi to all my brothers. I also see the LPH-4, USS Boxer mentioned several times. The Boxer was my ride to Vietnam in 1966. While in Vietnam on my second tour I also served on the LPH-10, USS Tripoli. That was a much newer ship. I presently live in the Santa Barbara, CA area but still have 180 acres in Canon City, CO. I go there every year to hunt mule deer and black bear.

I have been collecting firearms of all types since I was 12 years old. I have bought and sold quite a few of them over the years. While I won’t go into each firearm I own I will go into a Parker that recently crossed my doorstep. It is a GH, 12 gauge choked improved modified and full. It appears to be totally original. According to the factory letter it was completed on August 2, 1928. It is a 1 ½ frame with 28 inch with Parker Special Steel barrels. Original dimensions were 14 ¼ X 2 5/8ths at heel. Weight is a beautiful 7 pounds 5 ounces. Of course I will include photos. I just shot the gun for the first time a few days ago. Without a hand thrower my brother threw up some clay targets Frisbee style for me to hit. Surprisingly enough I hit about 90% of them though they did not go out too far. The chokes are pretty tight for me but even at close distances I did well. I give credit to the gun fitting me as well as the excellent chokes of the Parker. As an aside I did happen to shoot the gun at a piece of cardboard for each barrel at approximately 30 yards. Both patterns were well rounded and to point of aim. I now know not to use this gun for short range quail or penned pheasants. It would have cleaned them on the spot. I am looking forward to using it on wild pheasants though and possibly waterfowl.

While I am at this I have a question for other forum readers. My normal stock measurements to hit well seem to be 14 ¼ X 1 ½ X 2 ½. I see a lot of Parkers for sale with measurements that are great except for the drop at heel. In your experience if I were to buy a gun with drop at heel of 2 ¾ inches but the drop at comb is still 1 ½ inches will it adversely affect my shooting? I am looking for a Parker 16 gauge, O frame, V grade or better in excellent condition.

Thanks in advance for your hospitality. From reading the posts I can see a wealth of knowledge about shotguns as well as a friendly bunch. I also know not to bring up anything about shooting steel shot in an older gun, not that I ever would. I hope to meet many of you in the future and possibly we could hunt together. I would be happy to help someone hunt in CO for deer and elk for possibly a pheasant hunting trip or waterfowl somewhere.

Dennis V. Nix

[Dave Suponski]

Dennis, Welcome to the PGCA! Sounds like your first Parker fit's you pretty well. Get that gun out to a skeet,trap or sporting range to really give it a road test. I think you will be amazed at how versatile these gun's are. As far as stock dimensions go I think drop at comb is the more important of the two.

[Dennis V. Nix]

Thanks, Dave. I think I agree with your comment about drop at comb being more important. I think some time I will just have to try a gun with the 2 3/4 inch drop at heel to see how it shoots for me. I know the British have a term, something about drop at face or cheek which would be important as well. Sounds to me pretty much the same as our drop at comb. At one time I had two L. C. Smith guns, a 12 and a 20. One was a field grade and the other an Ideal grade. Both were about new condition and I loved them. Problem was I could not hit anything with them as the drop at comb was too much. I sent them back. Thanks for your comments.

[Dennis V. Nix]

I think I have successfully downloaded photos of my 1928 GH 12 gauge to my public album. A sincere thank you to Bruce Day and Frank Cronin.

[Chuck Bishop]

While I agree with Dave that the drop at the comb is more important than the drop at the heel, what is most important is where your cheek bone contacts the stock. Given 2 stocks that are equal at the comb, the one with more drop at the heel will slope more quickly so if you mount both stocks and place your cheek where it feels most natural and repeatable, they may or may not be the same drop at this point. Remember, your eye is the rear sight. If you raise your eye, the gun will shoot higher and lowering your eye will make the gun shoot lower. It's better to have more drop than less drop within reason. You can always add moleskin or a cheek pad without damaging the stock. Not enough drop means taking wood off the comb or spending money to have the stock bent.

If the gun your looking at has 2 3/4 inch drop at the heel and a gun you shoot well has 2 1/2 drop at the heel, and the drop at the comb is the same, I'd be surprised if you could tell the difference.

Good luck and welcome.

[Mark Ouellette]

VIRUS Alert!

Everyone please do not click on the link posted above by "jayday". It looks very much like Virus Bait to me. Don't take that bait...

A couple hours has passed...

Looks like our web-sheriff has cleaned up this thread! Thanks John! :bowdown:

Mark