GH just arrived...

[B. Dudley]

Andy,

Your gun got me thinking about serial number stamping on parkers and what "we" know about them.

Generally speaking the major numbers stamped on any gun (forend, water table and barrel lug) will match. Meaning that they were stamped with the same size and style of numbers. Not necessarily that they were stamped with THE exact same stamps, but just that the different work stations in the factory would have been using the same type of stamps. The size and style of number stamps varied a lot over the many years of manufacture. But generally the numbers were of a serif style up until about the time of your gun when they switched to a san-serif or more block type of letter style. And the numbers got larger. Even though in the earlier serif stamps there was some times when the numbers got bigger as well, then smaller again...

But, the variation in your gun being that the water table (and I assume forend) have the earlier type serif style and the barrel lug has the later type san-serif style. I rummaged around through what I have here and was able to find two different examples not long after your gun was made. A 210,000 range Trojan and a 219,000 range GHE. BOTH of them look the way yours does. So, it is apparent that around this time, the barrel were being stamped with the newer style stamp and the frames/forends with the older style. Whereas a later example I have here in the 225,000 range has the newer san-serif style letters on the frame/forend.

So, your gun, though it goes against what would generally be held to be "the way", is from a time when that was not really so.

[Andy]

Thank you Brian, that explains a lot. And this has certainly been a learning lesson on this gun. Now let's see if I can smash a few clays at The Rock with it.

[edgarspencer]

The SN on my 202 range DHE16 is much the same, but the SN on one of the DDHE20s in close proximity is much smaller.

[Alfred Greeson]

Some discussion on changing numbers to match your frame, I once had a nice GH with Vulcan barrels, it was originally a Damascus barrel gun. The numbers can be changed but I doubt that anyone would change the rib, etc, or actually rebuild the barrels so you can be pretty sure when you see an orphaned set of barrels from Parker. I once saw a beautiful AH 16 and later found it was an AH 12 originally but I still wish I had bought it. I regret that the dealer never mentioned that it was not actually a 16 but I didn't ask so he wasn't dishonest, just not forthcoming and could see I was new to the game. Live and learn but if I had bought it and later found a set of 12 barrels, it would have been a sweet gun, even without original barrels and I didn't know what steel should have been on it and didn't even check to see if the numbers matched. Talk about a sheep waiting to be sheared! So we live and learn but you gotta love a Parker, call me prejudice but the best ever built.