[stumpstalker]

Bill:

If you are referring to my DHE 12 gauge: Yes, I have a Research Letter for the gun. (I have six Parker guns and have obtained Research Letters on all of them except for one that is a Trojan, a [non]-grade for which I understand letters are not available.)

Below is the Letter on the gun and an indistinct photo of the gun's receiver. it. As you can see no buyer is listed. However, your inquiry has motivated me to reach out to the Winchester Arms Collectors Association, since I just discovered that Winchester took over Wm. Read & Sons in 1921. Very slim chance there, but still worth following-up.

My father bought the DHE and a VH as well from a hunting and fishing buddy, Joe Macone, who with his brothers opened Macone Sporting Goods, located in our home town of Concord, Massachusetts, after WW II. That local store was closed many years ago, and I am told that no sales records exist.

My guess is that the “source” of vintage guns for that store was just locals walking in with an heirloom for sale or someone approaching one of the brothers at a near-by club with a gun to divest. Has it not been said that everyone of that generation wanted fire-power at the time -- pumps; semi-autos -- having just won a global war with such advantages over our adversaries? My father, although also a WW II veteran, fortunately for me went in the opposite direction and only acquired, shot skeet and hunted with Parker side-by-sides. (His favorite, by-the-way, was the [non]-graded 12-gauge Trojan.)

I did contact the two Concord, MA gun clubs to see if there were records that might lead to who “S. F.” (the initials on the shield) was. Between “sorry, we have no records of membership” and club officer apathy I got nowhere.

Thanks for raising the question, if you did mean my gun and not Harold’s.

Now, as for Harold’s gun. I would really like to hear more about his legacy 16-gauge of 1916 of Meriden manufacture, i.e., photos if they exist of his great-grandfather; the gun; of “Whitey”; an idea of the game pursued; the details of the gun if a Research Letter is obtained.

It is nice to hear that Harold treasures the gun; not all inheritors of these guns have such an appreciation. And, I recommend that Harold join up, as I did, and discover that membership in the PGCA conduces to infinite appreciation of what we have inherited.