Latest Fishtail lever - Revisited

[Brian Dudley]

TPS states that the fishtail lever was used intermittently on parker Hammerless guns until about 1892. And I have seen several in the early years of hammerless production.

In searching the forum on the topic, there was a previous thread asking about the latest Fishtail lever. Two members said they had guns made in 1905 (130,000 range) that had them.

Does anyone else have an example of one even later than '05?


Dean mentioned seeing a BH before with one. Anyone else seen a higher grade gun with one? like an A or AA? Or even A-1? The A-1 was introduced in 1904, so, if there are a few examples in 1905, then I guess it could be plausible.

[Bill Mullins]

Brian... I have seen two A grades made in the mid 1890’s with the fishtail lever.
One was a 12 and the other a 16 gauge. 😊

[CraigThompson]

I’ve got seven hammer guns all made between 1881 and 1886 but only one has a fishtail . And that’s the 1886 gun . My only other fishtail is a circa 1892 GH . I kinda thought it a little strange the older ones didn’t have the fishtail lever . By that I mean the ones in my “accumulation” .

[Roger Lay]

I am new to the Parker forum and relatively new to Parkers in General and this will be my first post. I picked up an 1892 vintage 16 gauge GH on an 0 frame today and it has a fishtail lever on it. It took me a short bit of web search to find this was a factory lever and not something that had been altered.

[Brian Dudley]

Thanks for posting Roger. Enjoy your Parker. It sounds like a great vintage and configuration.

[Dean Romig]

Welcome to the forum Roger.

Your GH sounds like a good one. Can we see some pictures of it?





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[Michael Moffa]

66,xxx BH Dam5 with Fishtail

[Mills Morrison]

Seems most were in the 66,000 serial number range to early 70,000's.

[Roger Lay]

Welcome to the forum Roger.

Your GH sounds like a good one. Can we see some pictures of it?





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Dean, this is only my 2nd Parker my other is a VH 20 gauge made in 1904. When i figure out how to post pics i will post pics of both. Thanks

[Roger Lay]

Seems most were in the 66,000 serial number range to early 70,000's.


The GH 16 gauge that i mentioned above is in the 71k range.

[Dean Romig]

Roger - for posting pictures go to our Home Page and on the left click on FAQ’s. At the very bottom of the FAQ page are 2 links to videos on posting pictures.





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[Brian Dudley]

I was originally posing my question in relation to the A-1 special repro that I am reworking. I was toying with the idea of bending the lever on the gun, but I first wanted to see if it was in the realm of possibility that a fishtail lever was seen after 1904 (the intoduction of the A-1 special grade).
Any changes I made to the metalwork, I wanted to be authentic.
But, I decided against it, something about it just did not set right with me. Though I love fishtail levers, something about the straight lever on that gun just seems cleaner and the better choice.

[charlie cleveland]

i think you made a good choice brian....charlie

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

Brian I have a 20 ga hammer gun with fishtail lever ser # 161467 would put it late 1912 production, Gary