what was your first parker

[charlie cleveland]

seen bruce was sellin his first parker and thought this was a good theme for this...my first parker was a 10 ga hammerless PH grade 32 inch barrels full and full chokes...got this gun in about 1977 and still got it... charlie

[Thomas Garver]

I bought my first Parker at a gun auction in 2005. It is a VH 12 ga. on a #2 frame built in 1899. I just had it out yesterday on a shoot and it locks up tight and still shoots great.

[Rick Losey]

a 1904 VH 16 28" - still the first one out of the safe when Grouse season rolls around.

[Daryl Corona]

VHE 20, 26" skeet configured straight grip w/single trigger SK/in, SK/out purchased in 1971. Still have it and still shoot it on a regular basis. Good thread Charlie.

[calvin humburg]

1881 O grade, loose, pitted barreled 2 frame Lifter. Now on face. Still like the ol gun shoot it good.

[Russ Jackson]

Charlie ,Great Thread ,16 Ga. Trojan early gun with the rib extension ! Extra Full and Extra Full ,I couldn't hit anything with it till I found Spreaders ! Russ

[Dennis V. Nix]

Charlie instead of hunting that last turkey you should have been home coming up with ideas for an interesting thread. This is a great thread. My first Parker is the GH 12 gauge that I recently posted in photos. I love the gun. When I take it out whether to shoot clay targets at my home or hunting I sometimes just sit and admire the workmanship on the gun.

Dennis

[chris dawe]

Yeah neat thread...my first was a CH Bernard,#1 frame 12,I bought this gun sight unseen and figured what the %$#@ it's a Parker ,if its junk I could use the parts down the road,after a stock replacement for the broken non original it came with it takes pride of place for me,a later set of 16 gauge steel barrel's makes it even better.

But the best part is that it came to my door for less than $200.00,I got one dandy of a surprise when I opened the box !

[Dave Noreen]

When I was a kid, my Father shot a pair of AE-Grade Remington Model 1894s for upland game and had a 12-gauge, 30-inch full choke, Remington "The Sportsman" for dem web footed fowls. In 1959 he succumbed to the short barrel rantings of Jack O'Connor and had "The Sportsman" whacked to 26-inch with a Poly-Choke. Before the start of the 1960 season "The Sportsman" was gone and he had a 12-gauge, 30-inch, 2-frame, VH-Grade, Parker Bros. that had been shipped to Seattle Hardware Co. in July 1902.

While I shot my Father's a lot, I didn't buy a Parker Bros. myself until May 1996, an NH-Grade 3-frame 10-gauge.

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[Randy Davis]

Mine was a SC Single Barrel Trap gun. The top gun in the photo. It was not long after that I added a second. It too was a SBT, a SB grade.

RD
24743

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

Charlie, It was a PHE steel barrel gun with 30" tubes. Seems it was in the mid eighties can,t rightly remember. I was in the gun shop looking at a L.C. Smith specialty grade when the owner brought it out from under the counter, It had 70% original case, good barrel blue and wood paid 4200.00 which was a lot then ,but it was a very high condition gun. At the time I was a L.C. Smith guy. Gary

[Fred Preston]

My first is an 1884 0 grade 12 with 28" twist bbls. Bought it for $20 in 1959 from an old Indian known as Chief who ran a fishing and hunting camp on Tunk Lake, Maine. With Dean's help in getting it properly hammered, it still busts birds and targets.

[George Lander]

Charlie: Mine was a Grade Three Hammer 10 Gauge Gun that I got when I was about eight years old. My dad's frien that owned an AMOCO service station had taken it in on trade for gas and I traded him my 16 gauge Iver Johnson single shot for it. I guess that's what got me started in this crazy collecting business. (I still have it!)

Best Regards, George

[Mills Morrison]

Mine was a 20 gauge Trojan. It is still my favorite.

[Richard Flanders]

26" VHE20 that was my mothers gun when she was a kid. Last thing she said to my grandmother before she died was "make sure Richard gets the Parker".... I got it and, after having it for 40 yrs, am about to pass it on to a niece who loves to shoot

[Dean Romig]

My first was a borrowed 12 ga. Trojan with 28" barrels. I had it on semi-permanent loan until my friend Dave, the owner, moved to Boise and asked to have it back. That all started back in '61 and I cut my SXS teeth on that gun. I didn't shoot it very well for the first year as I was only 13 and only weighed 130 or so. After I grew into the gun so that it didn't kick me so hard every time I shot it my shooting improved quite a lot.

The first Parker I bought was an 1898 12 ga. DH with 30" Titanic barrels choked FULL/FULL. I bought it in 2000 from KTP (in the pre JD years) and had Russ Bickel fit a set of 30" IC/MOD Damascus barrels to it. Russ also re-rust-blued the Titanic barrels and properly put them back on-face. Brad Batchelder refinished the Damascus barrels and all it needs now is some new screws and it will look pretty nice. It is a great shooter and I use it often.

[Bill Zachow]

Charlie, mine was/is a 12 gauge DH that my wife forced me to buy when I took her a 130 miles to a hunting camp auction outside of Theresa, NY. I have written about the gun twice in Parker Pages. The "forcing" from my wife took place when I dropped out of the bidding at $3000. My wife said, "you dragged me up here because it was a Parker, buy the &$@?) thing." So I did. The gun is in superb shape and the selling family (Snell) purchased the gun in 1917. I have the Parker catalog that was used to order the gun through a Watertown, NY gun a hardware business, the hang tags, additional Parker catalogs and other family memorabilia. The gun piqued my interest so much that I was able to get into Remington (before the PGCA) and find the original order. I still have it.

[Dave Suponski]

Charlie, My first was a lowly VH 12 gauge with 28" barrels on a 2 frame. Bought it back in 1993 I think and paid $700.00 for it. I still remember the serial number 102500. Shot it for a few weeks and the stock split at the head and that is when my friendship with Dennis Smith(The Stock Doctor)took place. I saw his add in the Gun List and contacted him. He restocked the gun to my dimentions for a great price and I have never looked back. Kinda wish I still had that gun.

[scott kittredge]

Hmm, i bought mine in 1998 i think(maybe pete can help here) at the KTP in Maine too, it was a 12 ga VH, 1 1/2 frame ,28 in, F/M for 680.00. shot that for a few years than the bug hit, trading and selling and buying,:eek: scott

[Robin Lewis]

I inherited a GHE 16ga back in 1972 when my very best friend died. My other guns might be sold but never that one. I take it hunting every fall.

[Jeff Christie]

Mine was a SC Single Barrel Trap gun. The top gun in the photo. It was not long after that I added a second. It too was a SBT, a SB grade.

RD
24743

They are real beauties. I trust they regularly get to the range.

My first Parker is a DHE 12 ga 1 1/2 frame, 28" Titanic steel. It is a true family gun. My great grandfather ordered it in 1910. It was shipped to Buxton, Iowa where he served as secretary and General Counsel for a coal company. The town no longer exists except as a historical marker. It has his initials and home town Albia, Ia. engraved. I don't know if that was done in Meridan or not. It is still a great gun- one I use daily in Iowa's rooster season.

[Randy Davis]

Thanks Jeff... Well, not as often as they should. Have a few vintage sbt guns. They get to the club a couple times a year...

[George Lang]

Mine was a 20 ga Trojan with rib extension. Paid $30 in 1968, Traded it and $20 for a 12ga VH 2 years later. Wish I had it back.

[wayne goerres]

My first parker was a G grade. Didnt know anything about them. It was a hammerless damascus barreled gun. In a bout of stupidity I traded it for a kimber eclipse.

[Marty Kohler]

Ok...It was 1979 after I got married and got my first lab.... Somehow my Ithaca Model 37 20 gauge just didn't seem quite right for shooting upland birds...I recall Gene Hill having something to do with that thinking,...anyway there she was a 16 VH for,.. huh? $900 ...a bit over priced but I had to have it...after having it a short time I bulged the right barrel with an unseen dose of snow while chasing pheasants.....OH NO! ...sent it up to Lee Center (Lefever Arms) to fix and thought while they had it why not refinish the stock?...well it came back with perfect barrels but a completely blonde stock...and I didn't know at the time who could fix it.....the gun never was the same for me....but I do have a great picture of "Robbie, two woodcock and my "first Parker" and haven't had one refinished since........

[Harold Lee Pickens]

a VH 16 with 28" barrels circa 1925. Probably taken more game with that gun than any other. Bought it in 1987.

[Jack Cronkhite]

32" VH 12 ga F/M CPG DHBP. This was my Dad's gun. I grew up in awe of that gun in my Dad's hands. He gave it to me in the early '80's. I shot a lot of birds with it until 2003 when the left barrel failed. It is now an 18" coach gun. I finally got a set of barrels that fit it, so it will be back in the field this fall.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_HPIM6768.JPGhttp://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_HPIM6760.JPGhttp://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_HPIM6767.JPGhttp://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_HPIM6795.JPGhttp://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_HPIM6785.JPG

I asked Dad to write a bit about each of his guns before he passed. Here is what he had to say about 145522.

The Parker double barreled was purchased from Russels Sporting Goods in Calgary about 1952. It cost $85. At that time, I made my own ammunition and the first hunt with the shot gun I got 5 snow geese with 2 shots with reload BB's. There were four of us in the hunting party and we all crawled up on the geese. Just as they took off I fired twice as they were airborn and dropped five. Another time I made a high shot at a V of mallards and pintails. I got 5 ducks with one shot. The gun would knock the birds down between seventy five and eighty yards. One time the right side of the stock blew off in my face. I was wearing shooters glasses at the time. I got a lot of splinters in my right hand and some brass. Apparently the firing pin poked a hole through the primer and caused the charge to come back through the gun. This was the best shotgun I ever owned.

[charlie cleveland]

what a great storey jack.. charlie

[Jack Selman]

Mine is a damascus 16 GH handed down to me in 1980 from my dad. It was his father's, a gentleman who passed away before I was born. It hangs over our fireplace mantle. I picture my pa and his pa strolling the Georgia hedgerows, kicking up a covey of bobs and sending feathers flying. That gift whetted a Parker appetite that lingers today.

[Scott Fox]

My First Parker was purchased in 1988. It was a well worn DH grade that had the barrels lopped off to 18" and the butt had a slip on rubber pad because someone had removed the skeleton buttplate. This shotgun was on display at my local gunshop behind the counter not for sale, but as a humorous "security device". The owner did not want to sell the gun as he considered it a unsafe wall hanger. It had been hanging there he told me for over twenty five years. I kept pestering him until he finally sold it to me. I loved the engraving on that Parker, and that was what hooked me on Parkers ever since.

[Leighton Stallones]

Mine was a 10 ga hammerless 9 1/2 pound gun with 36 INCH barrels. SOld it to a friend of mine for Turkey hunting.

[Pete Lester]

My first Parker was a 1913 12ga 28" Trojan I purchased from my local gunsmith in 1984. I really did not know very much about Parker's and I had not read Johnson's or Baer's books. An older friend who did a lot of upland hunting at the time had a 26" barrel 12ga Trojan and I admired it and wanted one of my own. In Dec '84 I was getting ready to leave for a remote assignment to Iceland and I had sold my Jeep as I would not need a vehicle. I used some of the proceeds to buy this gun. On the morning I left for Iceland I woke up early, went to a favorite spot on a brackish river feeding into Great Bay. It was low tide and I managed to make sneak on a raft of ducks. When they flushed I dropped a black duck but couldn't figure out the double trigger in time to get a second shot. I went over and picked the big red leg and while I was holding the duck I saw a small flock of mallards dropping in about 50 yards away. I rested the forend on the top of my left forearm still holding the black duck and folded a greenhead with my second barrel. First two shots, two ducks, who says Parker's aren't special?

I still have the gun which was in great condition when I got it, 65 to 70% cc. Near twenty five seasons of salt water gunning and laying in muddy cornfields took it's toll. In 2007 I had DelGrego & Son restore everything but the cc.



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[Craig Larter]

I am a newbie---bought my first Parker a DH circa 1918 in 2008. Beautiful all original gun #2 frame Titanic, pistol grip that I shot very well----but I sold it to move into a Fox-----the only good thing is I good friend bought it so I get to visit it frequently---unfortunately he loves the gun and won't sell it back to me.
I got the Parker bug again about a year ago after buying a CHE Bernard at a local auction for a great price----now I own 2 more a GH and a BHE. All are pictured in "albums". I like the early guns pre-1906 with damascus barrels. Fun hobby and many great people!

[Jared Valeski]

My first is a Parker & Snow 1864 dated contract percussion rifle made for use in the war between the states. I figured I would start collecting at the beginning of things...

[Michael Murphy]

My first was a "new" Parker, a 28ga two-barrel Reproduction. A great gun that fits me well and has accounted for quail, grouse & clays.
My first "old" Parker was a 12ga 32" barreled VHE in really good shape that's seen action at clays and pheasants.

[Thomas L. Benson Sr.]

Charlie: The first Parker I purchased in 1984 is a VH 12 ga. Two barrel set with 32 inch and 26 inch barrels with English stock and I still own it and it is my go to gun for waterfowl mostly. Thanks for the interest Charlie. Thomas

[Mike Franzen]

My first Parker is #12088 and came out of Delaware where it had been in the same family for more than 100 years. An acquaintance of mine told me about the old gun and its damascus barrels. When I asked if would be safe to shoot he replied, "My God man, it's a Packa! They are hand cannons"! It's got honest wear and looks like a well used, but taken care of 135 year old gun. It shows no evidence of the screws ever being turned and the bores are like mirrors. It hunts and breaks clays on a regular basis. You can probably tell I love it.

[Wayne Johnson]

I guess I'm the real newbie here. I got my first one just a few weeks, maybe a month ago. A 12 ga, 28" Trogan, from 1924, that I found on the rack at my LGS. When I was a kid my grandfather had a Parker 20 (probably a Trogan from what I've learned here) and I had always wanted one, but never could afford it. I was surprised to see that this one was tagged at $850.00. I got it for $750.00. It had been refinished but to me that didn't really matter. I didn't buy it as a collector piece but as a way of connecting back to a time when I was a shirtail kid dragging along behind the grown-ups. I didn't even dare ask to see those guns, much less to shoot them.

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I've never been a bird hunter really. Some early season dove hunting when I was younger, but that's about it. I don't hunt much at all now, but I do slip out back from time to time to pot a squirrel in the fall. I think I'll take this one along sometime.

[FRANK HALSEY]

My first Parker was a SC SBT with a release trigger that I got in 2006 and I shoot it well. I had thoughts of changing the trigger back to a pull but I like the release and when and if I sell the gun, I will have the trigger fixed then. My next one was a BHE with 30" barrels and was in the 1893 gun show in Chicago. Than the bug bite hard and it was off to the races. I am still collecting Parkers but they are more of what I really want and not just collecting to have for investing. They are great guns. Frank

[Paul Plager]

Great idea Charlie.
My first Parker is a 1927 VH12. I bought it at a pawn shop for $600.00 a couple years ago. Then I found this site while researching the gun, joined up and here we are. I think the count is 7 Parkers. So far.:whistle:

[Mark Landskov]

My first was an 1877 vintage '0' Grade 12 gauge with 32" twist barrels. It was used hard and needed a little barrel work, but ended up being a nice shooter.

[Dean Romig]

Those barrels look great Mark!

[Mark Landskov]

The right barrel was bulged about 3" from the muzzle, and both ribs popped loose at the same spot. Brad Bachelder managed to get them looking real nice for me!

[Rich Anderson]

My Grandfather had Parkers and Mom told stories of his trap shooting and hunting with them. In 1978 when I graduated from college (yes I went to college and even learned a thing ot two:shock:) I saw a Trojan 12ga at a gun show for $400. At the time I didn't know a Trojan from an A1 Special. I never could shoot tha gun and didn't like the two triggers. I traded it for a VH 12 then traded that for a Browning Citori grade 5 20ga and later sold that for God knows what but I wish I had that Trojan back. My how times have changed.:)

[Mills Morrison]

I guess I am lucky to own the first Parker I owned, but the first Parker I remember was owned by a black gentleman who occasionally did some carpentry work for my Dad. I remember it had Damascus barrels, but was shot regularly. I distinctly remember Plez shooting it at a dove hunt on our old farm. He never would sell it, despite several offers. I would love to track that gun down and buy if the seller was willing. Plez passed on years ago.

[edgarspencer]

My first Parker was a T-Latch, when I was about 12. It had more rattles than my Ford. My first shooter was a VH-20, 28". That was stolen when I was first married in '72. The first one I ever shot was my Dad's first; a VH16. Still hunt with that one.

[allen newell]

Mine was a single bbl 410 at age 12 but hunted with it very little as my Dad handed me his VH16 realizing I was strong enough to carry it all day. He also let me hunt with his German Schmidt & Habermann 16 ga double. Got my first double on grouse with that German gun. I believe it's still sitting on a rack in a gun shop in Portsmouth, Ohio.

[Eric Grims]

Trojan 16 still have it and it is still my #1 go to hunting gun.

[Bill Murphy]

My first Parker was a 28 gauge 28" VH made in 1904 and ordered by William Wagner in Washington, DC. I bought it in 1960 on our local skeet field, paid the owner $130 for it if I remember correctly. I was 14 at the time and I believe my Dad fronted the money for me so I could complete the deal immediately. I still own the gun and shot a round of skeet with it two weeks ago. In the years since, I have bought a few other Wagner Parkers and haven't sold any of them.

[Pete Lester]

My first Parker was a 28 gauge 28" VH made in 1904 and ordered by William Wagner in Washington, DC. I bought it in 1960 on our local skeet field, paid the owner $130 for it if I remember correctly. I was 14 at the time and I believe my Dad fronted the money for me so I could complete the deal immediately. I still own the gun and shot a round of skeet with it two weeks ago. In the years since, I have bought a few other Wagner Parkers and haven't sold any of them.

Phew, I feel better reading this, I was afraid you might have bought your first one brand new :rotf:

[allen newell]

That was a good one JB. Very funny.

[Phillip Carr]

My first parker had been blued and the wood black as coal. This was the wood hiding underneath. It was a DH that lettered with a Silvers pad, and originally did not have a safety but was sent back to have on installed. S/N 82226 One of the few D grades to have originally installed Vulcan Barrels.


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[Chris Travinski]

Mine was/is a VH 12ga. with 30" barrels. I was up at the Kittery trading post with my Dad, he found it on the rack behind the counter and knew I had been lusting after a Parker for some time, so he paid for it and called me over to fill out the paper work.

[Phillip Carr]

Found the letter on my gun. It was ordered by Charles S. Burkhardt on March 7, 1896 and shipped April 18, 1896 to Buffalo NY. It states 30" Vulcan Barrels, choked F and F 2 3/4" chambers No Safety, 14 1/4 length of pull and 2 1/2 drop. Weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. Went back twice once 6 months later to restock, ( Take off safety ????) Reblue the frame ( Never remember it stating reblue the frame until now) Sent back again 6 months later to redress the stock and install new top lever spring, also ordered a spare. Was sent back again by MR F Cook at the colt armory in June of 1900 to clean, rebrown barrels and install Silvers pad.
I believe this was the 2nd of 16 guns made originally with Vulcan barrels.

[Larry Mason]

My first was handed down from my father. A NE 10ga 32" Damascus believed to be his fathers. But my Dad's first cousin who is ninety-five and I see every morning, says the hammerless Parker was my Great-Uncle, Fleet's. He said his Father and my Grandfather's Parkers were hammer guns. "Uncle" Walter's memory and mind is amazing and if he says it was Fleet Mason's then it was.