Patterning

[James L. Martin]

Randy my 34" VH has chokes of .030 & .036 with a stock that measures 14 15/16 - 1 9/16 - 1 3/4. Which would normally be too high for me as I see a lot of rib, but like yours it shoots dead on with 50/50 patterns. Mine has no safety

[Stan Hillis]

This is a quandary for me. I would give a "purty" if I could shoot both Randy's and James' guns to see if they shoot flat for me, too. Until now no gun with less than 2 3/8" DAH has ever shot flat for me.

Maybe I need to reread my copy of The Stockfitter's Bible by Rollin Oswald to see if I can figure out what's going on here.

[Cold Spring]

Nowadays I rarely do paper or plate patterning except to determine efficiency (percentage 30"/40-50-60 yards) when testing loads in special long range shotguns. I shoot a variety of guns regularly and with a new one I'll shoot a shot or two at a floating leaf or such in the water at about 30 yards and while on a platform or hill etc. I see the pattern in the water and can determine the approximate degree of choke and point of impact; rarely do I see much of a horizontal deviation. As the saying goes, "close enough for government work"; you can go nuts trying to be too precise given the poi variation with different loads and even a new lot of the same loading. That's something I learned from the late Kenny Eyster the noted barrelsmith from many days in his shop while tuning competition shotguns. I keep track of the vertical "water" height in a notebook and refer to it when using that shotgun on future outings. Subconscious does the rest.

[Randy Roberts]

Originally Posted by Stan Hillis

This is a quandary for me. I would give a "purty" if I could shoot both Randy's and James' guns to see if they shoot flat for me, too. Until now no gun with less than 2 3/8" DAH has ever shot flat for me.

Maybe I need to reread my copy of The Stockfitter's Bible by Rollin Oswald to see if I can figure out what's going on here.

To further add to the quandary Stan I shot a round of skeet and wobble trap last evening and this gun was spot on. One could opine or argue that the critical measurement in terms of drop is the DAC right below your eye or about 2" from the nose of the stock which I have not measured on this gun and compared with others. It may be quite similar thus negating some of the high dimensions in the DAH? Possibly? Of course that does not explain why I can see more of the rib on this one vs other guns and still shoot spot on, back to the quandary I suppose.

[Ed Blake]

That’s a handsome gun Randy. Congratulations

[Randy Roberts]

Originally Posted by Ed Blake

That’s a handsome gun Randy. Congratulations

Thanks Ed, it's growing on me. Might be a good idea to keep a couple of spreaders handy for those pesky 15 yard bunnies with this one.

[James L. Martin]

Randy, could the reason they shoot flat be the 34" barrels? Do you have other Parker guns with 34" barrels? If so how do they shoot

[Drew Hause]

Randy: does the letter document the original purchaser? If so I could check the Sporting Life archives and see if he was a "Top Gun". Also let me know the DOM so I know where to look.

[Jeff K.]

[Randy Roberts]

Originally Posted by James L. Martin

Randy, could the reason they shoot flat be the 34" barrels? Do you have other Parker guns with 34" barrels? If so how do they shoot

James my other 34" guns have measurements that fit my preferences more closely and they pattern just fine as one would expect. As far as the 34" barrels having some sort of impact on the patterning results I am probably not qualified to answer that.
BTW I remember your gun from a Rock Mtn. shoot where you had it out as I recall, I think that's where we were