Parker Gun Collectors Association Forums - PARKER BHE TRAP GUN OR LIVE PIGEON GUN?

Parker Gun Collectors Association Forums (https://parkerguns.org/forum/index.php)

- General Parker Discussions (https://parkerguns.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=2)

- - PARKER BHE TRAP GUN OR LIVE PIGEON GUN? (https://parkerguns.org/forum/showthread.php?t=46195)

Quote:

Originally Posted by todd allen (Post 446430)

That fits the description and qualifications of a pigeon gun.
As for the Golden Age of pigeon shooting, I feel like I lived it. The vast majority of my experience has been Perazzi, but I blocked out periods that were dedicated to the Parker Brothers purpose built target guns.
During this period, I entered a few sporting clays shoots with these guns.
I was a registered AA shooter, so I would sign in into the Hunter Class as Arthur du Bray.
One particular shoot I tied with a Master Class shooter from Utah, who knew me quite well. The chatter at the clubhouse was mostly about "Who is this duBray guy?" I was shooting a 1874 250 Grade Underlifter.
There was a bunch of pointing and elbow jabbing when the gallery saw me show up with an ancient hammer gun for a shoot-off against one of our top SC shooters.
I could tell a lot of stories about shooting various dedicated competition guns from Parker against all comers in pigeon games.
It's been my experience that the single sight plane guns hold an advantage in many target games, especially with the long complicated presentations in SCs, but the SxSs hold up well in the box bird games.

I’ve not been in the pigeon ring games for more than 5 or 6 years , but I’ve never fired at a pigeon be it Colombaire or boxbirds with anything but a Parker same can be said for boxbird quail . I have a Peruvian friend that goes to the kings cup each year and he keeps telling me a 32” guns to long for Colombaire he may be correct but over the years all but two races have been shot with tight choked 32” guns and the other two were shot with a 30” gun .

Manitoba was part of DuBray’s territory. You’ll find in Parkers in Pulp where he made a number of business trips there and enjoyed the hunting as well. No doubt the order was placed on one of those visits.

I preferred 28" for Columbaire and 30" for box birds for the simple reason I could move them quicker to the bird.

Quote:

Originally Posted by todd allen (Post 446431)

I would really love to see some pictures of this one.

There are a number of pic and a long interesting discussion on this gun in a companion thread titled Parker BHE Engraving Patterns. The thread is about 6 down from this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drew Hause (Post 446432)

Apparently more interested in golf & curling
https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/pitblado_i.shtml

No hits in the Sporting Life archives which reported major Canadian trap shoots.

He was friends with Dan Bain, who won the The Dominion of Canada Trap Shooting Championship in Toronto in 1903

Live Pigeon competitions became much less popular in Great Britain and Canada after the 1900 Paris Olympic Games, but I couldn't find a date when they were outlawed by legislation.

Thanks, Drew. Looks like Mr Pitbaldo was associated with trap shooting to some extent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Davis (Post 446447)

Thanks. Very interesting. DuBray sure covered a lot of territory. Winnipeg was a small town back in the 1900's and I can't image he sold many Parkers.

Interesting that there is still a number of pigeon shooters in this modern day and shooting vintage guns. Congratulations.
My pigeon shooting has been confined to the barnyard type. Except for 3 trips to Argentina for doves and pigeons. Back then you were limited to 200 pigeons per person per day---that has been reduced in the past few years to 100 or maybe less. There was no limit on doves. I rented guns from the outfitter as bring guns from Canada to Argentina in a pain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Burwash (Post 446466)

Nothing wrong with shooting pigeons in the barnyard ! In Argentina in my one trip I enjoyed shooting the pigeons more than the dove . But when I comes to shotgun shooting games hands down I’ll take Colombaire first boxbirds second over any of the clay target games .

All of my shooting partners in Argentina preferred pigeons over doves as well.
I've never had the opportunity to shoot competitive pigeons. But have shot a ton of clay targets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Burwash (Post 446472)

All of my shooting partners in Argentina preferred pigeons over doves as well.
I've never had the opportunity to shoot competitive pigeons. But have shot a ton of clay targets.

Forty years ago I wanted to get an invitation to one of the decent sized box bird shoots . At that time you needed to know someone to get an invite . Anyway the people I knew that did it told me I’d be broke in a year shooting pigeons competitively so I didn’t get to try it until perhaps six years ago . And yeah I now u der stand what they meant about entry fees at the larger boxbird shoots or Colombaire for that matter . The place I normally do this is typically no more than $400 a day for 15 birds . Where as a big boxbird shoot in PA or GA or TX might set you back $3k a day if you play all the options .