Doves

[Kevin McCormack]

Her you go Tracy - this is a picture of the floorplate of a gorgeous AAHE (16 ga. I believe) that I took in Del Grego's shop sometime in the early 1990s. The gun lay on a bed in an unused room in a relative of the original owner's home I believe in CA or AZ. The roof developed a leak and water came down on the barrels about 6 inches forward of the forend. Luckily no other parts of the gun were exposed. The pitting on the underside of the barrels was all surface, not that deep but in about an 8 inch swath between the forend and the muzzle. Del Grego's were able to lightly restrike, polish and reblue the barrels in the original rust bluing process, and they came out looking great. In addition to the doves on the floorplate, the gun had a Gambel's quail on the right side of the receiver and a different species of quail on the left which I could not identify. It was one of the most beautifully engraved Parkers I ever saw and I can still picture it in my mind today.