New 1893 DH 12 ga

[William Shear]

Hi everyone,
It has been a couple of years since I've been on this (or the Fox Collectors) site. Been bitten hard by the double rifle bug, but got reacquainted with vintage shotguns duck hunting down on VA's Eastern Shore this winter. I've had a smattering of old American doubles including a wand of a 16ga Sterlingworth with #3, 30" bbls; both a VH and Repro 28 ga and some less mentionables. Sadly I parted with these at one time or another.
Last Monday I played hookey from work and made a couple hour drive to inspect a DH which was offered on GB without bids. After some haggling with the consignor, we struck a deal. I might have overpaid a bit as I haven't kept up with the market, but I'm pretty comfortable judging condition and mechanics and this one seemed too good to pass up for $2K. Love to hear some feedback on that front.
Here are some of the particulars. . .
12ga, 30" damascus barrels with absolutely mirror chambers and bores. Mic out with min wall thickness of ~35thou, and never been honed. There are no dents, pitting and they ring like a chime. Pattern is incredible and they've not been refinished. Spent two hours cleaning out RIG which they were packed with long ago when the gun was put up.
Checkering and wood to metal fit is superb. The head shows a small amount of oil soaking evidenced by a little discoloration but all-in-all is quite minimal. Stock has never been refinished as far as I can tell and if I look closely in good light I can see some very fine crazing (sort of like the enamel on old china).
SBP was unfortunately cut and there is a decaying pad. LOP is ~13 7/8 (I usually shoot 14.25" but for ducks I'll have a coat. Drop is big at a hair over 3" but I've learned to shoot that before without too much problem.
There is the tiniest bit of wiggle with the forearm off; will capture a dollar bill tightly and I was able to remove all play with a piece of 0.001 shim stock on the hook.
Screws have never been turned and all are pretty much indexed appropriately.
Engraving is crisp and to my liking. Not much of case colors left except in protected areas.
I may put a Silvers pad on, or even a leather covered pad. Not a collector but a pretty old gun and look forward to playing with it some more with low pressure loads!

Bill

[William Shear]

A few more pics. . .

[scott kittredge]

looks like you did very,very good on this one!!, what is it choked?

[William Shear]

Thanks,
Choked 22 thou on the right and 34 thou on the left

[Russ Jackson]

Hello William , You seemed to have bought my gun !!! Congrats ! I bid on that gun every week it was on GB except for the last couple of times ,I bid $1500.00 every week and then finally 1700.00 was my high ,had it been a smaller frame ,I would have gone to $2000.00 without concern ,and probably should have any way !! You certainly bought a nice gun and as far as the price as long as you are happy then you did great ! On the pad ,when I mailed the seller ,he said the pad wasn't hardened to the point where all of the flex was gone and if I had ended up with it ,I believe I wouldn't touch the pad ,seems to give the gun character !:)

[charlie cleveland]

nice gun looks like you got a keeper..you did well on the price in my opion you dont find many guns that have been changed in some fashion...enjoy it and shoot well... charlie

[Richard Flanders]

Looks like a real beauty. From the looks of the oil packing the screw slots I'd recommend a good thorough cleaning of the innards. Sounds like it's been over oiled a bit and I'd bet anything there's a lot of old oil gunk inside. Gorgeous gun. You did very well. The screws look truly untouched. Pretty rare that.

[David Hamming]

Congratulations. Sharp gun.

[Dean Romig]

Very nice Bill. I have been watching that one for a few months and almost bought it myself. You did very well and it is a stunning DH. Congratulations!

Except for the DAH I think its value is closer to $3500

[William Shear]

I really appreciate the feedback and tips! I've been busy working this weekend but had her out in the light yetserday to take these pics--pretty stunned at the degree of condition for a 118 year old piece. It'll kick quarters hard off of my ceiling, but agree that the innards are likely a little gummy over time. The pad is still pretty flexible and after looking at it some more, I agree it does lend some character and may leave it be for the time. I do need to reclaim my copy of The Parker Story I lent a friend a couple years ago, join up w/ the PGCA and send off for a letter on this one.

I'm okay with the price paid-the shop owner where this one was consigned told me after the sale that it had been in the same family for a long time. I feel good knowing that they got market price after the consignment fees were taken out and hopefully I can get a little more history on the gun. The best deals are fair to all parties and I feel this one was.

I'm happy too to have something to stick in that old Heiser LOM which has been sitting empty!

Best to all,
Bill

[Richard Flanders]

Do the checkered stock cheeks look original? Overall the gun looks almost unfired. How about pics of the breech faces, tables, and bbl flats? And the muzzle and pad. This really is a gorgeous piece that looks was oiled up good and stored for decades untouched. I bet that oil in the screw slots is nearly fossilized.

I have a similar DH that has more color and sharper engraving than that, and bbl finish about the same but the wood is nowhere near that pretty and clean and I paid significantly more for it than $2k, and before the current gun craze sent prices through the stratosphere too. I think you did very well. And the 3" drop makes it more attractive to me... I love 3"DAH. Chokes are perfect also. The stock looks like one that might be seen on a C grade.

[William Shear]

Here are some more pics. . .

I'm far from an expert on Parkers as this is only my third, and as I mentioned previously, I don't have access to TPS to compare with pics. That said, I'll try to answer some of your ?s in turn:

I believe the checkered panels are original. I scrutinized them very carefully to see if there was an old head pinning I was missing, but happily saw none. I'll have to get a ruler to count LPI, but it does look a bit finer than the checkering on the wrist and forearm.

Gun has definitely been fired, just looks well taken care of. I'm guessing it got put up (and correctly) many years ago. The right breech face shows more evidence of being shot than the left-no pitting at all, just a little more tarnished for lack of a better description. Owner must've been a good shot! There is also some burnishing on the top tang where the lever rubbed some high points when opened.

Muzzle is great, good blacking of the exterior bbls up to the last 1/8" or so. The wedge/keel and solder is all there and bbls touch. The rib matting stops just short of the muzzle as I understand it is supposed to. The front bead looks original. In the pics there looks like scoring in the muzzles-that's just the lighting.

Water table and bbl flats look approp and the damascus pattern carries well along the length of the bbls except is fainter where the forearm rests.

[William Shear]

A few more. . .

[William Shear]

And some more. . .

[William Shear]

Just a few more

[William Shear]

last couple. . .

[Ed Blake]

Where else are you going to get that kind of wood and hand-engraving for what you paid? Nice gun.

[Bill Murphy]

William, this gun is likely to letter with the checkered cheeks. It was not unusual for informed buyers of Parkers to specify "Check side of stock, same as $200 grade." Get a letter from PGCA to confirm. The gentleman selling this gun is our neighbor at a local gun show, but it is hard to pin him down to a reasonable price on his internet offerings. You stood your ground and bought the gun for less than many internet lurkers would have been willing to pay. It is a questionable strategy that is sure to benefit the ultimate buyer more than it does the seller.

[William Shear]

Ed,
That is exactly the question I asked myself when I saw it--from the standpoint of a Parker neophyte, the DH damascus guns must represent one of the best values going.

Bill,
Thanks for the insight on both the checkered panels and the seller. I never spoke directly with the owner; in addition to the GB listing, it was sitting on consignment at a tiny local shop. I happened to pull up GB two days before and saw what looked like a clean old Parker in a configuration I liked. Fortunately, it was a short-ish trip for me and worse case I knew it would be a pretty drive. A family friend who deals in antiques and decoys told me once to never ask what someone's lowest price was as that gives the seller time to think what they have in it, etc.--simply set cash down, which is what I did. Shop owner told me guy had 2500 on it--I brought 20, 100 dollar bills and was prepared to walk away. When we got the owner on the phone, he wouldn't go below 2100 and I turned my pockets out. We checked to make sure there were no bids on GB, which there weren't, and the shop ate the $100 on their commission to make the sale.

I certainly don't claim any savvy in this, was just lucky that the gun happened to be listed locally so I could inspect it first-hand. The gun pretty much sold itself and we all know how hard it is to gamble on pictures. Also, the ad mentioned that a chip was glued back in to the left of the top tang, undoubtedly turning lots of folks off. It turned out it was just a line of fossilized oil which had run back from the action. I was able to chip a bit of it off w/ my finger nail confirming the wood was all sound.

As an aside, I remember reading that checkering can be safely cleaned out with a soft toothbrush moistened in Murphy's Oil Soap--I'd like to degunk the side panels a little. Is this okay to do?

Cheers,
Bill

[Bruce Day]

That is an outstanding piece of French walnut. $1000 for such a stock blank today before shaping.
I've long advocated that damascus Parkers are one of the great values in fine shotguns today. If you can get past the initial trepidation of shooting them, you will very much appreciate these guns. I sometimes use stout loads as the gun was originally intended for, although I realize many do not.
Yes, clean out the checkering. You may find you have deeper checking than you think.

So, let's see, the damascus D above or the following?

[William Shear]

Thanks Bruce for the inspiration-I may need to get her camo dipped for Spring turkey:)

[Dean Romig]

It has been my experience that Murphy's oil soap tends to soften the wood to the extent that even when using a soft brush you will expand and lift wood fibers.

[William Shear]

I am fortunate to live near a great wood guy and was discussing having the oil removed from the stock head before I move from the area this summer. It seems a shame to have to refinish an otherwise very clean original finish, but he said there is no other way to do it. If I have him do it, I'll go ahead and have a new pad installed--he said he would put a Silvers on a Parker, reserving a leather covered pad for English guns. Plus, with this much DAH, he feels they're too slippery and generally doesn't like them. No argument from me on that point.
What is the consensus on a refinish of the wood?
Thanks for any input,
Bill

[Dean Romig]

There isn't enough oil in that stock head to worry about at all - I shoot my DH all the time with no ill effects at all to the wood and mine has way more oil in the head than that beauty. I wouldn't touch the originality of that gun!

[Dave Purnell]

I agree with Dean. I wouldn't touch that gun.....Except to shoot it.....OFTEN!!

[calvin humburg]

Geze Bruce thats an easy one! William nice one.

[Bill Murphy]

William, what's the deal with the nice tooled case in the picture?

[William Shear]

Hi and thanks to everyone for the advice-confirmed my initial hunch to leave the finish alone.
Bill,
The LOM is a very nice tooled Heiser case I was lucky to get from another fine PGCA member, Karl Ferguson, a couple of years ago. I think the case is from the 20s or 30s although not too sure. It is a beauty, and while not the same vintage as the DH, fits it perfectly. Know anything about them? My Dad had an identical one I remember as a kid.
Cheers,
Bill

[Bill Murphy]

A friend was still ordering Heiser products until about 1955 according to his correspondence which is in my collection. They were still offering the tooled option as I recall. Please post a good picture of the whole case.

[Austin W Hogan]

The drop points shown in the photos of this "new 1893 DH" are about as nice an example of a skilled stock maker properly weilding the gouge to make the points and valleys. Perfect continuity of the curves, and artistic symmetry.

Best, Austin

[Dean Romig]

The drop points shown in the photos of this "new 1893 DH" are about as nice an example of a skilled stock maker properly weilding the gouge to make the points and valleys. Perfect continuity of the curves, and artistic symmetry.

Best, Austin

Yes, I agree - classic Parker Bros. stock work at its finest.