New Member from Lake George, NY
 

Hey guys just picked up my first Parker today. It’s an 20ga VH serial number 93390. The barrels have been reblued but I have a question as to some stampings on the flats that I can’t find any information on. I have uploaded a photo to this thread. The stampings read U.S.C. Co: #198 12-5-99. If you guys have any clues as to what this means I’m all ears. I’ve been searching for a nice shooter Parker for years now and finally found one.

I will be curious about what others say, but I believe USC Co. was a trademark for an ammunition company. So my guess is that it was owned by them.

believe you are right Mike-US Cartridge co? I remember a 28 ga VH at Hausmanns marked like that

Wow, that’s really cool thanks for the info guys. I’m on the younger side only 29 years old, so when I saw the 99 I just assumed it was 1999, but it’s obviously referring to 1899 when USC bought it from Parker.

There is information out there about the US Cartridge Company firearms collection. Your gun may be listed in one of those documents. Remember, "Google is your friend". Also Amazon Books or Abe Books may have something also.

I tried the google route and couldn't find anything and it kept shooting out articles for the supreme court decisions. I got off the phone with Greg over at Orvis, and he sent me some photos from "The Parker Story" where they went into a little detail of the US Cartridge Company guns, it appears that these are fairly rare guns since they only knew of two in left in existence when they wrote the book, a 10 gauge, and a 1 of 2 24 gauges that Parker made exclusively for USC.

well there was a 28ga VH that I handled a few yrs ago at Hausmanns, quite a few of us saw it.