Time Capsule

[Opening Day]

Originally Posted by edgarspencer

I agree with Eris, Dean, and much as I hate to say it, Rich too. A new, unfired gun in the condition it was dispatched from Meriden is a benchmark to which many, including future collectors, can look to as a guide. To say it was made to be shot so go and shoot it is precisely what I would have said 50 years ago, when I began to accumulate guns. I never had an opportunity to see something made by a company, long, long gone, with a reputation such as the Charles Parker Company has, in precisely the condition it was in, as handled by the final inspector. I have more than a dozen pieces in the same configuration as this gun, and they are most likely the same in feel, and performance. A 1933 $20 gold double eagle was minted to be spent; The Flying Jenny 24 cent airmail stamp had the center plate mixed up, and the plane got downsideup, but it was made to be licked and stuck to a letter. If you're stupid enough to take a gun like this out and shoot it, you're gonna go mail Aunt Matilda a letter with the $825,000 airmail stamp, then go buy a burrito and a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon with your twenty bucks.

I know it is a "bitch" to own a gun that you can't shoot, but, when you get to show it to others for comparision or just for knowledge, it's worth it. I know a couple of years ago, after I showed the skeet gun at the annual meeting, a man contacted me about selling the gun, after talking to him I found out the only reason he wanted to buy the gun was to shoot it and tell his buddy's he was the first to shoot it....... As you know I turned the offer down. It's hard but when you show it to someone that has never seen an original gun it makes up for it.. Eric