Found an interesting gun

Ross Berck · 10-13-2009, 01:06 AM

I was at scheels in omaha yesterday and bought what looked like a cobbled up phe Parker priced at $1295. It had been there for some months and I finally asked to look at it. The gun has a poorly fitted replacement buttstock,single trigger,ejectors,beavertail forend and a vent rib and some kind of recent case color. Let me say here that I despise 98 percent of restocked and recolored guns. The rib had been filed down at the breech end and looked very cobbled. I havent paid much attention to vent rib parkers and just assumed that the rib was some aftermarket job. . I called my 16yr old at home and had him look up the serial number. He said it had a 2 and 4 under the extras which mean ejectors and single trigger. The book info and the filed rib along with the stock made me think the gun was a built up gun with an aftermarked rib and beavertail so I thought it would be a good beater trap gun I could abuse(read that "shoot alot"). I bought the gun(for considerably less than asking price) and brought it home. I got out the parker story and started reading. I checked the numbers again and found the 24 was 24 not 2 and 4. 24 means Single trigger,ejectors,beavertail and vent rib. Ends up they only made a few hundred vent rib guns and only seven ph guns with ventilated ribs, only two, mine and another with vr,bt,ej,sst and the other was a straight stock gun(mine is capped pg). It looks like my gun is the first vr P grade made. The way the parker rib angles up from the breech must have bothered the previous owner so he ground it down. If he would have stocked it higher it would have been better than filing,trap shooters grrrr. The salesman thought same as me a cobbled gun. You would think they would check the numbers... Ill be getting a letter on the gun,maybe it was owned by a known trapshooter. Pics later....

Brush Buster · 10-13-2009, 05:33 AM

Ross; Great find, sometimes you have a little good fortune going your way ! Sounds as if you had it this time ! Look forward to Pics. Russ

Dean Romig · 10-13-2009, 05:51 AM

Terrific find!

Bill Murphy · 10-13-2009, 09:25 AM

That is a great buy. However TPS extrapolation of the P Grade Trap gun production figures is way off. I have seen quite a few fully optioned PH and PHE grade guns, own one myself, and a shooting buddy also owns one. One sold recently on the internet for a low price also. In the era when most PHE Traps were made (over 200,000 serial number range) there will not likely be information about the original purchaser in the PGCA letter. Congratulations on your new gun.

Ross Berck · 10-13-2009, 02:30 PM

Ross Berck · 10-13-2009, 03:09 PM

Bill, thanks for the info. Is your gun not listed in the book or listed wrong? According to the tables at the end of the books there are about 380 vented rib guns, what do you think about those numbers? Thanks again,Ross

Bill Murphy · 10-13-2009, 04:08 PM

I don't understand why the authors started the vent rib numbers at 222,930 range when the stock books were generally available for study from the beginning of vent rib availability at the 204,000 range up to serial number 219857. There were probably lots of vent rib guns earlier than the numbers they chose to list. They only came up with four to mention in the Skeet and Trap Gun section of the book. That four guns were probably actually taken from the stock books and not extrapolated. I think their information is incorrect because of an oversight, not because the stock books were not available for study. There were probably quite a few P Grade traps from the 204,000 range to #222,930 where they started their listing. I have no idea why they were left out of the listing. My gun is in the stock book, but not in the TPS list.

Ross Berck · 10-16-2009, 02:42 PM

Bill,
I dont really understand how the serialization book came to be but I cant find any PP(PH)guns before mine(223223) that have a vented rib or beavertail. There are several with ejectors and a couple with single trigger. I looked at a several thousand listings before mine(easy because there are not many pp guns listed. Is your gun before mine? Thanks, Ross

Drew Hause · 10-16-2009, 03:05 PM

Frank Campbell was from Waukee, Iowa (just west of Des Moines) and was a Pro for U. M. C. and Dead Shot. He won the 1912 Western Handicap at Kansas City, Mo. with 94 out of 100 from 20 yards using his Parker. Not sure if he was still at the traps in 1927.
Please let us know who ordered the gun Ross.