DHE 20g Ribs

[Bruce Day]

Here are two 20ga DHE shot guns, one a 24" 1910, the other a 32" 1926. The 32"s can be a bit long for carrying, in my opinion 30"s would be about perfect for open country shooting. The 24"s are great for carrying and heavy brush.

Bill Murphy had commented on the long tapered rib being elegant and I fully agree. The long, thin, tapered barrels with a tapered rib are especially nice in my opinion.

This sequence of photos also shows two original barrel ends, one showing a large un-matted space, the other barely a termination line. The absence of a termination line is indicative of a dreaded cut barrel.

These guns have differences that are kind of fun to notice. As Yogi Berra said, you can observe a lot by just looking. I have a lot to observe and learn.

[Dean Romig]

Exceptionally nice examples Bruce - Thanks.





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[Bill Holcombe]

Gorgeous as always.

[Dean Romig]

The finely tapered rib really accentuates the barrel length on that gun! Beautiful!





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[Daniel G Rainey]

Two great DHE's ! How long are the barrels ? Dan

[Dean Romig]

Deleted due to impertinence.




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[Bill Murphy]

The end of that beautiful tapered rib is barely wider than the front sight. After reading thousands of Parker orders, I have never seen one that specifies the tapered rib. By the way Bruce posted that the barrels are 24" and 32".

[Dean Romig]

Somewhat impertinent at this point but I'll leave it here.

By the way Bruce posted that the barrels are 24" and 32".


Thanks Bill - I had read the OP's OP a couple of times but still missed the fact that he told us what the barrel lengths were in his OP..... or did he go back and edit his OP to include the barrel lengths?

It matters not though... the previous owner shot me a PM and reminded me of the barrel length and that I had shot that gun when he owned it.





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[Brian Dudley]

I will add that pretty much all hammerless Parker ribs have a taper to them. They just don't go down to that thin.

[Bob Brown]

I always enjoy your posts of high condition or rare Parkers. Bruce. Please keep them coming. Did all the longer barrel 20s have the tapered rib? This post got me to send in letter requests on a couple that I've been meaning to for a while. One is a 30" barrel VHE 20 with a straight grip, pad, and ivory bead. The bead is smaller on this than the one pictured, but the rib has a pretty good taper to it though not to the same extent with the 2" shorter barrels.

[Bruce Day]

Bob I have seen the narrow tapered rib on all gauges 12 through 410 and in barrels 28 and more. That's just what I've seen and I sure haven't seen them all. There is no mention of it in TPS nor has it been found in Parker documents but it surely exists

Sounds like you have a wonderful 20ga

Here is the narrow tapered rib on a 1905 CHE 16 ga 28 that I will take with me for the next month. A favorite hunting gun.

[Bruce Day]

Kind of nice wood on the 16

[Bruce Day]

Here is another narrow tapered rib on a 20 ga 30" A grade

[Bruce Day]

Also with nice wood

[Bruce Day]

And some people like the engraving

[Bob Brown]

That is a beauty, Bruce. It may seem odd to the members in the U.S., but even though I've been a PGCA member for years and kept my eyes open for Parkers I've only actually seen, in person, one in a grade higher than DH. A well worn AH about 6 years ago at a gun show I had to drive 12 hours to get to. There just aren't any up in northern Canada where I live. So please keep those photos coming. Its probably as close as I'll get to the high grades.

edit:You posted those A grade photos while I was typing the note above. Just stunning. Some day when I retire I'm going to travel down the east coast and hit all the big SxS shoots in the fall. It will be an education.

[Bruce Day]

Bob I flew with the RCAF at Edmonton and spent time at RCAFB Cold Lake. Landed at Churchill on Hudsons Bay. Great times and great people. Spent many storms at Goose Bay in Labrador

[Bob Brown]

Goose Bay, Churchill, Cold Lake, well, you've hit some of the best places in Canada! It is a great country, but could sure use more Parkers, Foxes, and Elsies.

[Bruce Day]

I haven't helped you much. I have pulled three really nice Parkers and one wonderful Lefever out of Canada. The little DHE 20 ga 24" in the first photos spent 95 years in Halifax NS

[Bob Brown]

Ha, so you're the one! Just kidding. I think Jack Cronkhite has brought a up a couple to make up for it. They made it up here on their own, but I've got a few that lettered as being originally sold in the U.S. so I shouldn't complain too much. I have to admit that I hate seeing the really nice ones leaving. Too much of the country's history gets lost.

[Bill Murphy]

In my years of studying Parker Brothers orders, Canadian orders are all but absent. I think Canadian customers ordered from big New York and Philadelphia dealers/wholesalers.

[Dean Romig]

I know of a beautiful CHE 20 ga. with 30" Damascus barrels, no safety, and a straight grip with checkered butt that was originally sent straight from Meriden to Canada.

Unfortunately it no longer has those dangerous Damascus barrels. They were replaced with a set of 28" Belgian fluid steel barrels and not a very good fit either.



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[Bruce Day]

There was a major Parker dealer/ distributor in Vancouver. I have the paperwork elsewhere but the dealer was mayor of the city and built many of that beautiful cities parks. I saw an old photo where he had three vertical rows of guns and a ladder to access the upper row.

He ordered dozens of Parkers at a time often GH 12 gauges . He was also rumored to be one of the principal gun providers for the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. The Chinese in BC by custom shipped their dead home to China to be buried and he would send crates of guns in caskets to China.

I'll remember his name there is a city park named after him.

Got it. Charles E Tisdall. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Parkers.


I came across a great D hammer 10 ga very high condition but no Canadians were interested at anything near fair value. I finally connected it with a US friend. It had been the waterfowl gun of a Canadian General who became well known and much admired in WWI but even with that provenance it went begging

[Bob Brown]

Bill, I'm surprised there weren't more Canadian orders in the books. There were some large sporting goods stores in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Toronto that sold quite a few. What I've found was that many of the Parkers I come across in Canada were built around 1898-1910. Perhaps that was a prosperous time in Canada. With people like DuBray crossing Canada selling and fitting guns at the large stores I would have thought there would be a respectable % of the total.
Dean, that 20 sounds great, except for the barrels. I'd like to see that one.
I guess fair value varies with location. While I might pay more for a Canadian made Rawbone, Marston, or Tobin than it might go for in the U.S. I find that Parker prices are about 75% of American prices. That may be more for lower grades where the paperwork and cost of getting a gun into the U.S. makes it less likely to be imported. That would matter less for a high grade or collectible Parker.
That doesn't hit me too often. I'm usually seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged Parkers go.

[edgarspencer]

Bruce, I'm curious about the 24" barrels, as they might compare to longer assembled barrels. If you were to take a dimension at the muzzle of 24" barrels, how does that compare to the 24" mark on the 32" barrels? Similarly, how does the terminal end of the 24" rib compare to the 24" mark of the 32" barrels?
One would assume the factory did not keep barrels tubes of different tapers in anticipation of finished lengths, and as the tubes would be touching at the muzzle of the 24" barrels, and significantly separated if they were barrels subsequently cut to 24", the tapers must therefore be more dramatic on the 24" gun (which, I might add, is one killer of a gun)

[Brett Hoop]

I noticed the rib engraving differs in the 2 shown on page 1,not just in direction of arrows but the Conn on one and the other lettered CT U.S.A. .

I have a VH 1915, 16ga 0frame with barrels lettered Conn, and recently acquired a 20ga. 0 frame VHE set of barrels lettered CT U.S.A. that date 1916. Both are lettered Vulcan Steel. I am wondering if the rib on the 20ga.VHE set is original or a latter replacement, or when the rib marking changed?

[Dean Romig]

It was during the war years that the Conn. was changed to CT. It may also have to do with the sourcing of the rough barrel tubes not coming from Europe any longer due again to the war.

There is a great deal of information on this in The Parker Story.

There is also information in TPS regarding an earlier question from another poster about when USA bagan to appear on the rib legend.





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[Kevin McCormack]

I will add that pretty much all hammerless Parker ribs have a taper to them. They just don't go down to that thin.

THANK YOU BRIAN!!!