Fathers Guns

[John Faison]

If anyone can give any information on the attached it would be appreciated.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Wow, very nice. i'm sure others will chime in, but the serial #s would allow us to look up exactly what you have. The first gun is a VH, a lower grade but looks to be in nice shape. The hammer gun also appears to be in nice condition and many of us love to shoot the old hammer guns. Your father left you 2 nice guns to enjoy.
I guess there is some rust problems there on closer look--what do the inside bores look like.

[John Faison]

serial numbers are 137481 and 54860 for the hammer

[Daniel G Rainey]

Father had good taste !

[John Faison]

still does thankfully. he just wanted them out of his home. Now I have to decide what to do with them. Do I get them refurbished or just leave as is. Don't even know if they have much value

[John Faison]

bores do appear to be clean and shinny with no signs of rust or pitting inside

[Dean Romig]

Most of us would advise you to leave them as they are and just enjoy them. Hopefully you like to hunt or shoot clays... or both.

Nice Parkers!






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[Rick Losey]

serial numbers are 137481 and 54860 for the hammer

137481 is a VH 16ga with 28" barrels -

54860 is a grade 0 12 with 30" twist barrels


they look great as is - as they say - first do no harm - i see no reason from these pics to redo anything

assuming sound barrels - both are still great guns to shoot


there should be a number on the back barrel (under side) of the 16ga is it a 1 or 0 ?

[John Faison]

it is a 1

[Rick Losey]

the slightly heavier frame - but that matches one of my most favorite upland guns

do you hunt or shoot?

[John Faison]

not much of a hunter, but do love to shoot. typically not older guns.
I am not sure what I am going to do with the guns other then keep them safe

[Rick Losey]

most of us shoot clays with these old guns

call RST http://www.rstshells.com/ and get some short shells and try a round of clays with that hammer gun - its a blast

[John Faison]

thank you all for the information. Great site

[Jerry Harlow]

I would do the VH differently. If my father gave me a 70 run of the mill Chevelle, original with a good interior but poor paint and I wanted to drive and enjoy it, I would paint it.

Thus with a gun that has the rusty and look to be slightly pitted outside barrels, I would have them redone. Probably between $300 to $500 depending upon who did them. Then the barrels would match the rest of the gun, in good shape. Someone put them away with sweat or wet. This would greatly increase the value in my opinion, and to your next generation.

[John Faison]

Do you have any suggestions on who to use. I would love to get the gun back to pristine condition. I live in NC if that make any difference.

[Jerry Harlow]

Rather than promote one shop over the other you can go to the home page and go to LINKS at the bottom. I believe everyone on there is on there for a reason, they should know what they are doing. You can price shop from there by calling them.

If you are in N.C. consider coming to the Southern and there several can look at the gun, give opinions on your choices so far. Just search for the Southern on the forum and info will come up.

Good luck.

[John Faison]

thank you and I will research links.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

My first Parker was a VH 16 1 frame with 28" barrels, still have it. That little heavier weight does make them shoot nice, but on my all day grouse marches, I much prefer the 0 frame or my little VH 20. I think that rust would clean up fairly well with some Hoppes and a frontier pad or scotchbrite pad. The hammer gun doesn't appear to have a rust problem.

[Alfred Greeson]

Just cleaning sounds good. Trying to remove the rust is not that difficult. Whatever you use to remove it, not much pressure and you will not hurt the original finish and getting the rust off will stop it from pitting or doing further damage.
Would those guns have belonged to a grandfather or other relative? They are a real treasure and if you shoot them, you will probably discover why we love the old doubles.
Just a personal note, I have some of my Father's guns and knowing that most of the wear on them is from him enjoying them through the years makes me want to keep them just as they are....you can never put the old patina and wear back and in my case, that is just the way he left them and a good reason to keep them just as they are but whatever makes them so you enjoy them. Nice guns. Keep them in the family.

[Jerry Harlow]

If you decide to just clean them, the Frontier 45 pad is the best way to go. No steel wool, since as much rust as you have you will need to scrub hard. It will remove no finish, just rust. Price them by the dozen and sell/give them to your gun loving friends. They are very cheap that way, and remove rust from anything.

http://www.big45metalcleaner.com/

[George Lander]

The only gun that my father had that I remember was a 12 bore Fox Sterlingworth that he carried in the trunk of his car (he was a traveling salesman in the later part of his working life and his clients would often invite him to go hunting) It was in a canvas breakdown case and the trunk of his car must have leaked some as it had some rust and dings from use to the metal and wood. Several years before he passed in 1974 I had the gun completely restored to like new. When I gave it back to him I think that I could see a tear in his eye remembering past hunts an game taken. I'm glad that I did it.