What exactly is...

[Shawn Wayment]

...an A-1 Special Upgrade? If this has been discussed before, can you point me to a link. Thanks!

[Bob Jurewicz]

Shawn,
Here is a thread on my A1S upgrade. It started life as a VHE and in 1972 was upgraded by DelGrego and Runge to an A1S Skeet.
http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=24392
Bob Jurewicz

[Kevin McCormack]

Shawn, Bob J's upgrade is one of the better ones I have seen, especially in terms of detail to the wood as well as metal execution. My friend Shelly Gitman had a number of DelGrego/Runge upgrades done in the 1980s and '90s, chiefly smallbores, but also a few larger bores and one or 2 SBT guns. In the 1960s and '70s, they (DelGrego and Runge) did a number of A1S upgrades for Tom Wilkins of Wilkins Coffee fame, several of which I had the opportunity to see and inspect before delivery. Often derided as "one-off copies" in the day, they are priceless artifacts now and smart people buy them when they can.

Other artisans have done A1S upgrades (e.g., Pachmayer, Dan McCombs). There is a tendency when doing upgrades to vastly exceed or over embellish tableaus of original Parker Brothers or the very few Remington Ilion Parker Guns layouts in an effort to produce a "stupefying" effect of extravagance or superior refinement of original Parker Gun standards, which become very apparent when examining guns upgraded particularly in the last 15-20 years.

Interestingly enough, some of the highest grade guns were produced with relatively subdued decoration (e.g., no game scenes, only scrollwork, or in some rare cases, no engraving at all at the highest grades). There are a number of examples in prior threads.

[Brian Dudley]

An A-1 special upgrade would be a Parker of a lower grade that has been reworked to accurately emulate that of an A-1 special. Ie: restocked in A-1 quality and engraved/finished in A-1 quality. “Accurately” would be the key word for me in order for it to be called an upgrade technically. Or else it should just be called a custom gun.

[Alfred Greeson]

The real plus to the Runge upgrade is that he worked for Parker so you are getting one possibly done by previously Parker employees. In the early days, DelGrego, the grandfather, and Runge both worked for Parker and when Parker sold to Remington, the elder DelGrego bought a lot of parts and machinery from Parker and set up shop. Runge went to work for DelGrego so you get as close to Parker work as you will find, just my opinion. The last one I saw was really nice and it was signed by Runge on the water table. Lot of opinions on this topic.

[Dave Moore]

I have posted this gun before but this is a nice example of a A1 Special upgrade that was done by Pachmyer gun works in Los Angeles. It started as a V grade. It is a 00 frame 28ga with 30” barrels

[Dean Romig]

when Parker sold to Remington, the elder DelGrego bought a lot of parts and machinery from Parker and set up shop.


A minor correction: At the outbreak of WW-II, after 7 years of Parker shotgun ownership and production, when Remington Arms terminated the manufacture of sporting arms to go into full production of military arms is actually when Del Grego purchased the remaining Parker stock and machinery.





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[Kevin McCormack]

".... when Parker sold to Remington, the elder DelGrego bought a lot of parts and machinery from Parker and set up shop. "

"A minor correction: At the outbreak of WW-II, after 7 years of Parker shotgun ownership and production, when Remington Arms terminated the manufacture of sporting arms to go into full production of military arms is actually when Del Grego purchased the remaining Parker stock and machinery."

A major correction: Unfortunately, neither of these statements is true. Parker Bros. sold to Remington in 1934 and moved gunmaking operations to Ilion NY in 1937. Larry Del Grego Sr. and Robert Rudolph Runge and son Robert Phoenix Runge were among the very few Meriden employees invited by Remington to make the move to Ilion. All Parker gun parts inventories followed Remington's termination of Meriden manufacture of the gun.

Larry Del Grego Sr. left Remington in 1955 shortly after Remington bigwigs decided to no longer repair or service Parker guns. Specializing in Parkers and Remington Model 32s, Remington referred all maintenance and repair work on these guns to him. Realizing the potential of becoming a specialty shop, he purchased the remaining Parker Gun parts inventory and a few specialized machines (e.g., rib matting and ejector installation jigs and single trigger jigs) in the early 1960s. Remington walked away from the deal with the final severance it had long desired in the repair and servicing of Parker guns, and the Del Gregos acquired the single high-volume parts inventory that Remington would have certainly scrapped in terminating that service.

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Kevin for setting me straight. I kinda thought I might have missed something in the chain.





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[Reggie Bishop]

Dave Moore is that your 30” upgrade? Very nice!

[Dave Moore]

Not mine, at least not right now.

I just kept the pics on my computer because I liked the gun.