QUESTIONS FOR COLLECTORS
Recently I came across an article in a 1935 Outdoor Life by Major Askins. In the article he outlined how he had ordered a Parker 10 gauge with 32 inch barrels that after time and changes in his physique, he no longer shot well on ducks. He wanted the gun lighter and with more open chokes. He wrote that he contacted Parker about cutting the barrels to open the chokes. Parker, according to Askins, told him to purchase another gun. Askins goes on to describe how he bought the equipment and honed the barrels himself after cutting two inches from them. He also cut off the steel butt plate (so, I assume this was at least a DH grade), drilled out some weight in the stock, and added a rubber recoil pad. Apparently he honed the barrels repeatedly and was happy with the results.
Here's my questions: If this gun was available for purchase, would it be more or less valuable than the originally configured gun (assuming condition the same with no changes)? And, a second question is, which would YOU value more: the documented, altered gun owned by a well known sporting figure; or the same gun in unaltered, original condition?
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“Every day I wonder how many things I am dead wrong about.”
― Jim Harrison
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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