New Member From Upstate NY
 

I posted this to another thread and thought I would it would be appropriate to add it to this one. I've been around parkers all my life because my father collected them. I never actually owned my own but hunted with them often. About a year ago I became an owner/collector when my father passed away and left two (of his six) GHs to me. Both were originally 12 ga, 1 frame, 26 inch Damascus barrels.

One is a family heirloom that was my grandfather's. His name was Edwin Hicks and he left it (in a round-about way) to my father who was also Edwin Hicks. Now I have it, my name is Edwin Hicks, and I hope to leave it to my son, you guessed it...Edwin Hicks. It is in fair shape, a little loose at the hinge pin, a repaired crack through the wrist of the stock, and Dad replaced the Damascus barrels with steel; a Del Grego job I believe. But I will get the barrels back on face and hunt with it.

The other GH is a resurrection project that my father started and I finished. It was a disaster when he acquired it but he saw something in it and now it is pretty nice. Dad was a dyed in the wool grouse and woodcock hunter and he favored the shorter barrels and open chokes while hunting over his English Setters. This gun and a 0 frame 20 bore were his bird hunting guns.

I consider myself an upland bird hunter as well so my interest is in Parkers that are suited for that, and I like the simple elegance of the G grade. To expand my collection, I would love to acquire a 16 and/or 20 ga CH (who wouldn't?) but I may be priced out of that market. I would settle for a DH though.

Welcome Edwin III !

It sounds like you have a pretty good start in the realm of collecting and using Parkers.
Is that a 20 bore GH with 26" Damascus barrels you're restoring?


Please tell us about your Snowy Owl avatar pic. Is it perched on your hand?









.

Dean - I've lurked on this site since becoming a member and your posts and other contributions to this Association have always impressed me. I've learned a lot from your expertise, thanks for sharing it so willingly.

The gun that I referred to as a 20 bore 0 frame was one of my dad's primary upland guns. Sadly, it went to my younger brother. The two parkers I inherited are GH 12 bore guns, 1 frame, 26" barrels. The family heirloom was made in 1907 and had originally Damascus barrels, but my dad had them replaced with modern steel barrels. It needs a little work to get into shooting condition and I will have that done before next hunting season.

The other 12 bore gun, I refer to it as a resurrection rather than a restoration because it has not been restored to exactly correct condition, was made in 1901. It still has its original Damascus barrels, but the trick here is that they've been fitted with Briley 20 gauge tubes, so now it is a 20 gauge gun that can handle modern smokeless ammo. I know this may be perceived negatively by some collectors, but this gun will not be sold. It has become my primary bird hunting gun. With its screw-in chokes...it is very versatile, and it looks great too! Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gun.

Mr. Bachelder refinished the barrels for me last year which completed the resurrection. Prior to that work, it was restocked by a family friend, the receiver and other metal parts have had the case colors restored, and the remaining metal parts have been re-blued. The only info I could find out about who did the case colors is that it was a guy in Ohio who is dead now. Perhaps an outfit called Color Case Co Inc.? I'll post some photos of it when I can get time and figure out how.

Regarding the Snowy Owl...that is my catch and release bird hunting hobby. I am a Federally licensed bird bander and in the wintertime, the focus for me is on raptors. Back in 2014 there was an unprecedented Snowy Owl irruption out of the Arctic into Southern Canada, the US and as far south as Florida and even Bermuda.

Local to me (Saratoga Springs NY) we had one in Washington County NY near Fort Edward, that's the one in my avatar so, yes, I was holding it. The real hot spot near me was Addison County VT. where 25 - 30 of them could be found on any given day for several months. I ended up banding 4 of them.

I am trained to capture and band most species from hummingbirds to large raptors. The birds are captured using various safe trapping methods and then fitted with an aluminum leg band supplied to me by the BBL. I record information about each bird and the data I gather is reported to the Bird Banding Laboratory. I collect data for my own studies as well. Sorry for the lengthy reply.

Thanks for your kind words Ted.

Lengthy replies are good - they tell us more about you than we knew before and that's a good thing.
When you get the hang of picture posting we'd like to see your guns - especially the re-colored one. I had a Trojan 16 that I was told was done by the Ohio Case Color Co.

Incidentally, there is a picture posting tutorial on our Home page under FAQ's I think.






,

Fascinating!
 

Edwin,
Congratulations on owning two fine Parker shotguns. I enjoyed your explanation of your bird work very much! Thank You, Joe

same here joe about your guns and the bird banding was really great...i too will be glad to see your parkers....charlie

Ted,
Thanks for your interesting post as it brings back memories of my college years where I took an ornithology course to complete my BS in biology. My professor was a licensed bander and most of the semester was spent tending the mist nets and banding mostly warblers as this was his area of expertise. That lead to my hobby of birding which I do just about every day. Raptors are also one of my favorites.

Ted,

Welcome.

You do some neat stuff. You remind me of a very good friend of mine and hunting companion, Jerry Czech originally from the Schnectady NY area, but lived in Webster NY just about a 1/2 mile from the south shore of Lake Ontario. A great place for migrating birds of prey in the spring. He had a federal license to trap and band hawks. He was also the Curator of Natural Science at the Rochester Museum and Science center.

He also had at various times and properly licensed a peregrine falcon, goshawk and red tailed hawk.

In addition to hunting ducks and geese with him, we also hunted wild pigeons year round to supply food for his hawks. His gun of choice was a 16 gauge Ithaca model 37 pump with a poly choke. He rarely missed with that gun. He estimated he shot several thousand pigeons with that gun.

He was also a very accomplished taxidermist who did that work for the museum and a fantastic artist of birds and wildlife using water colors. I'll post some pictures of his work in a day or two.
We spent a lot of time hunting together. I also went bird trapping with him. His wife said I was the only one who he would take with him.

Sadly, Jerry died about 8 or 9 years ago. Way too soon.

Ted,
Welcome and thanks for the introduction.
It is good to hear from others from upstate.
Western, NY here.

Thanks to all for the warm welcomes. I have heard of Gary Czech probably from my infrequent association with the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory. There's been a banding station there for decades and they do get lots of raptors in the fall.

My raptor banding partner was out yesterday in Montgomery County NY and he captured/banded a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk. It is the second he has encountered in this area and had much more white in it than the last one. He and I are going out tomorrow to the Fort Edward Washington County area. We were there last week and had a slow day, but managed to capture a Cooper's Hawk. I am still trying to figure out how to post pictures. I'll get some up of some of the birds and some have asked for photos of my two Parkers so I'll get them up too.