DHE 16

[Harold Pickens]

I am anew member to the PGCA and this is my first post. My question concerns a DHE 16 that I have owned for almost 20 years.
I recently received a Parker letter on the gun #132731. It was shipped to Atlanta, Ga. in1905 and the oval on the stock says Jos. Gray, Atlanta, Ga. I am sure it must have been some old quail hunters gun.
the letter confirms that it is an O frame, with26" barrels of cyl and mod.,6 lbs weight, 13 7/8 LOP, with a half pistol grip. This is where my gun deviates from the letter. It has a straight grip with all the ordered dimensions. It has the proper Parker trigger guard with the serial #, skeleton butt plate, but the spear point extensions to the stock side panels are checkered as in a B grade.
The letter states that the gun was returned to the factory in 1910, t0 take dents out of the barrels, redress the stock, and clean the action.
Could redressing the stock have meant changing it to a st. grip, and what do you think about th checkering on the side panels. I have opions from a couple of extremly knowledgable people who feel that this is an all original gun.
I also have a 16 VH with the original hang tags that is my everday carry gun and also a VH 20 with 26" barrels. I know you guys are going to want pictures and I will try as soon as I figure that out

[Greg Miller CTGunLaw]

A minor thing to remove the trigger guard. Using a properly fitted screwdriver remove the wood screw on the back of the tang. Then give it a "gentle" tap with a rubber mallet and the guard should pop out at the back. Then turn the trigger guard counterclockwise and it will unscrew from the frame. This will expose the serial numbers on the stock, which should match. There are people who will try and doctor this, but if they do not match, the stock probably did not come on this gun. If it takes a good tap and the tang pops out and it is all old and black underneath and the serial number matches, good chance it is original. Others on this site may have more insight, but errors in the records are not unheard of. And, the gun may have gone back again, and that book might be missing. Sounds like a lovely gun. In good health and happy holidays.

[Harold Pickens]

Greg,
Thanks for the reply. I am going to take the gun to Jerry or Tom Andrews, and let them remove the tang and check on the serial #. This is really a sweet little gun at 6 lbs. I have never really carried the gun to hunt with, but I may put a slip on pad to give it a little more LOP. I can shoot the drop, but prefer a little straighter stock. I can just imagine it riding on some mule drawn wagon, hunting quail over a pair of bird dogs.

[Hammer Gun]

Harold, when the tang is removed you will probably see a 3 stamped on the wood also. I have a DHE 16 28" brls love the gun straight stocks one with a hawkins, and original with skb, I am a hammer gun nut but like this DHE have fun with it! Gary

[George Lander]

Harold: Most probably you are right. Redressing the stock when sent back for repairs probably meant changing it from half pistolgrip to straight (since all other dimensions match) Sounds like a great little Parker. Georgia was and is the Bobwhite Quail Capitol of the world.

Best Regards, George

[C.O.B.]

The checkered side panels might be a special order or it might hide a stock repair. It's common to pin the head of a stock to fix a crack and the checkering would hide the repair.

[Bill Murphy]

Let's see pictures of the cheeks. If the cheeks were checkered after 1919, there would be no record in the order books. Original Parker checkered cheeks are hard to fake. Let us take a look.

[Bill Murphy]

The checkered cheeks you pictured on the new thread do not appear to be done by the Parker Brothers or Remington factory.

[Fishtail]

The records indicate is was an 0 frame?

[Harold Pickens]

Yes, it is an O frame, 26" choked cyl/mod, Titanic steel, and weighs 6 lbs. All dimensions match the factory letter except for the straight grip vs the half grip indicated in the letter. It was returned to the factory in 1910 to take dents out of the barrels and rebrown, redress the stock,and cleaning.
I am going to have the trigger guard removed to see if the serial # matches and have the stock evaluated, but i am going to let somebody else do that. I will post what I find