First time shooting my Parker

Jeff Keacher · 04-21-2014, 10:02 PM

It was beautiful in Denver today, and my Vintager shells from Polywad finally arrived, so I decided to take my hammer Parker out to the range.

It was the first time I had ever shot it, so I wasn't quite sure what would happen. Would the barrels explode? Would it put anything on the patterning board? The answers turned out to be "no" and "plenty."

Truth be told, it was the first time I'd ever fired a hammer shotgun or anything with two triggers, and it was fun! A different experience from the pump guns and semi-autos that I'm used to.

Here's a short video. The leather glove was due to uncertainty about whether it would stay in one piece. Seems that the pitting that was present in the barrels wasn't an issue after all:

Watch video

edgarspencer · 04-22-2014, 05:46 PM

I chucked to myself when you first went to shoot, but hadn't cocked the hammers. I can't tell you how often I see that happen, even with experienced hammer gun shooters, myself included. It usually happens when were shooting Sporting clays and switching guns between hammerless and hammer.
I wear a glove on my fore end hand as a matter of course. I believe it improves my grip, and the barrel does get warm when you're doing a lot of shooting.

Jeff Keacher · 04-22-2014, 09:52 PM

Oh yeah. A pull of the trigger and... nothing. Oops!

B. Dudley · 04-23-2014, 08:38 AM

I was shooting a single trigger Parker GHE for a while and then went back to a DT gun. First couple of pairs I messed up bad. It doesn't take long to develop habits.

Thanks for posting the video. You will find that pitting in the barrels is not all that much of a concern. Wall thickness is mostly what counts. But, no matter how much you check out a new set of barrels, there is always that thought in the back of you mind the first time you pull the trigger.

Try shooting one of the very early Parkers without rebounding locks. After firing, you have to pull the hammers back to safe before you can open the gun. Adds another step in there to confuse things.

Jeff Keacher · 04-24-2014, 12:35 AM

Non-rebounding hammers? Wow, I would probably screw that up at least a few times.

I poked around a bit, but I didn't find any information about when rebounding locks were introduced on Parkers. Searches using Google's excellent patent-search function suggest that rebounding locks became popular in the mid 1870s, but that's a rough estimate.

Any idea about the date of introduction for rebounding locks on Parker guns?