AH Upgrade?

[Dean Romig]

Grade 4 Parkers did not have the bead around the fences and the two dogs on the sides began with Grade 5 and 6 Parkers. Any engraver worth his salt can match engraving on non-original barrels to match the engraving on other parts of the gun. In my opinion, if it is an upgrade of an original Grade 2, it was done either at Meriden or by an engraver contracted by Parker Bros... and in my opinion it was not an upgrade done by DelGrego as Robert Runge, although he did some marvelous work, did not do that gun - that's just not his style and an engraver can't entirely work in a different style without leaving some kind of clue.

Incidentally, I'll retract the statement I made earlier about the colors being cyanide colors... on that issue I'm not so sure of.

[winplumber]

Dean I may be confused but just went and pulled my C H out and the fences do have the bead as in the picture.

[edgarspencer]

At it's very least, it's a Parker, and a very beautiful gun at that. Unless I bought it from someone representing it as an original AH, I wouldn't be the least bit ashamed to own it and enjoy it. Whether the actual work to it in it's present form was done under the Parker roof or not, I couldn't speculate, but it certainly appears to have been done by someone intimately familiar with the style of guns from the company.

[AmarilloMike]

I would sure like to see the the PGCA Letter on it.

Best,

Mike

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Steve Huffman

Dean I may be confused but just went and pulled my C H out and the fences do have the bead as in the picture.

The "bead" I refer to is the raised rib or bead around the perimeter of the breech balls. This was done only on Grade 5 (B) and above Parkers.

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

David,

Thanks for the compliment about this gun! I aquired it from a friend as what it is, a GH upgraded to AH with purple barrels and a few other bugs. It had the safety removed and the slot filled in. Before even shooting it I sent it to Bachelder's to reinstall the safety mechanism. Anyway, I bought it "right" from a local friend from whom I've bought other guns. On three pheasant hunts this year this little AH upgrade has proven to me to be a 90% one-shot gun. I guess it likes it's new home in my safe surrounded by Parkers and other SxS's for it has paid me back with memorable days afield!

Mike,

I had thought the same. Get the letter! But, as I replied to Bill, the Research Committee advised me that the gun is listed as a GH in both of the references available to them. This was a professional curtesy extended to me as "good customer" of letters. My request for the was that of a batch of four letters. I opted not to waste $40 to learn my gun was a GH (as I already knew) and ordered by a hardware store. If there was any chance of learning more I would indeed pay for the priviledge.

Thanks,
Mark

[Ray Masciarella]

If this was a upgrade by Parker, I would think the letter would confirm. Its worth the 40 bucks to find out in my opinion. I have a question: did Parker even do this type of upgrade? I suppose they'd do whatever a customer wanted but why not just buy an AH if that's what you wanted?

I agree with Dean that it's not a Remington or later upgrade. The style is much earlier.

One thing that makes me think it was not a Parker upgrade is ( assuming it was originally a GH) that Parker would not have changed the grade on the watertable. It would have just done the upgrade and reflected that in it's records. But you never know I guess. Is it possible that the gun was returned for some reason, ie in trade, and Parker had an order for an AH and used it to fill the order? speculation on my part but a letter might answer many questions so I'd get one.

Best, Ray

[Dean Romig]

As Mark states, beyond what the PGCA researcher has told him about this AH there is no other information so it is a dead end and all of our opinions are merely speculation.

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Ray,

Don't I wish a letter would an upgrade! The research letter will tell of it's original configuration and perhaps what person or in the case of a simple GH, what store ordered it. A later upgrade would be on the repair record book for which none is listed for this gun.

I ponder your second question of would Parker do an upgrade such as this? The wood is correct and the receiver engraving looks like that of a Parker engraver but with some C Grade art mixed in with the AH engraving.

Returned in trade and then upgraded? Maybe. I once owned a documented Remington era Parker Skeet gun for which the receiver was made as a Parker Bros VHE but sold as a GHE. This is part of the research from the PGCA. Since I sold the gun I x'ed out the serial number.

"We Found It"

I received a research letter request on serial number 238xxx in February and it looked like a routine letter request. We had a stock book entry and a Remington IBM card. I checked the IBM card first and found a OBE 12 gauge with a single trigger and 26 inch barrels ordered by Abercrombie and Fitch on February 7, 1936. I then pulled the stock book and found the gun was completed in December 1935 or two months prior to the order being received. It is listed in stock book 82 as a VBE 12 gauge with a single trigger and 26 inch barrels.

There has been much speculation on whether Remington upgraded guns to higher grades. Austin has found examples of Remington converting existing guns in inventory to skeet guns. We now have an example of a VHE being upgraded to a higher grade.

---
Okay, I'm going to call the attention of our researcher to this thread.

Ray, thanks fo much for sharing your thoughts!

Mark

[Dean Romig]

Ahah!! I was going through my album of pictures and found an old one of this gun so now I know where you got it. I guess we'll never know the history of this one. Anything that could have been learned about it would certainly have come to light by now.