The One That Got Away

[Bill Murphy]

There are not enough years left in my life expectancy to retell all those stories.

[C grade]

I had greatly admired a high condition B grade 16 hammergun owned by a fellow member. He was gracious enough to have let me shoot it at Sanford and it fit me perfect. I begged, badgered , pleaded, pliled him with wiskey butt.... he did promise that if he ever decided to sell it I would get the first call. Well, the call came on a Friday evening and he said I could have it for what he paid Jack P. for the gun. If you have done business with Jack you know the guns are great but the price is absolute top $$$. I told him I would have to think about it overnight. You guessed it-called back the next day and Jack had repurchased the gun to never bee seen since. There are others but that is the most vivid. I later had a chance at a beautiful steel barreled 20ga D grade hammergun. Similar story but when Mark gave me a price I wrote the check!!
David

[George Lander]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

There are not enough years left in my life expectancy to retell all those stories.

Bill is correct, but the one that comes immediately to mind was the 1911 Colt Automatic that belonged to Nathan Bedford Forrest III (grandson of the Confederate General) who was an Air Force pilot shot down over Germany near the end of WWII.

Best Regards, George

[Phil Yearout]

Not a Parker story, or even a fine gun story I guess, but very early on in my doublegun interest I found a pair of "Fox" Model B guns, one in 20ga and one in .410. They were identical, nearly mint, and were very early guns; they had the nice duck hunting scene (I assume acid etched) on the bottom of the receivers as opposed to the simple outline of a Fox head that the later Model B's have. I don't even remember the price but it might as well have been a million; I was broke as a dude ranch pony, but I really wanted those guns! Ultimately I tried to buy just the .410 but the seller wouldn't split them up. Seems kinda silly now; lots of folks wouldn't look twice at a Model B. But I lamented those guns for a long time.