Parker DHE Year of Manuf?

[Jeffrey Eley]

Could someone assist me in determining what year my gun was made. I attempted the serial# lookup but, had no success or just doing something incorrectly, I'm sure that's it!

This Beautiful shotgun was a family heirloom that just recently got passed down to me, Love Parkers but don't know much about this one, any help would be great!

Thank You.

The serial# is 237039.

[Dean Romig]

1936 I believe. (edited)

It is a Remington era Parker and may have been made in the Remington plant in Illion, NY.
It has all of the external features, including the wider front of the forend than the more tapered style we associate with those made in Meriden. It looks to be a very nice DHE. Congratulations!!





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[Jeffrey Eley]

Thank You! I also, do not know what the little slide mechanism is next to the trigger, I guessing some type of "Release Trigger." I'm not exactly sure how they operate. Thanks again.

Jeff

[Garry L Gordon]

It has a selective single trigger. You can switch which barrel fires first by moving it.

[Randy G Roberts]

Thank You! I also, do not know what the little slide mechanism is next to the trigger, I guessing some type of "Release Trigger." I'm not exactly sure how they operate. Thanks again.

Jeff

It is the barrel selector which determines which barrel is fired first when the trigger is pulled.

[Jeffrey Eley]

Thanks to all of you for the Quick replies! I go to Yuma every year for the opening of Dove season and this fine gun is Definitely going with me, thanks again.

[Dean Romig]

When you select which barrel fires first you are actually selecting which choke will be your first choice.





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[Brian Dudley]

That gun is killer! It does not get much better than that.

[Dave Noreen]

Wonderful family heirloom!!

We need to see a good picture of the barrel flats. The Remington era Parker shotguns will have a Remington date code on the barrel flats. The code is usually pretty tight against the base of the lug on the left barrel flat. This gun very close to yours is from May 1935 --

113372

[todd allen]

That DHE is absolutely stunning!

[Greg Baehman]

Parker Reproductions contain a lot of this gun's DNA.

[Jeffrey Eley]

The Date Code on my Barrel Flats appears to be the letters "AD"

[Jeffrey Eley]

The Date Code Appears to be "AD"113373

[Jeffrey Eley]

I added a pic of my barrel Flats, it's on P2 of this thread, Thanks to everyone who has rersponded.

[Arthur Shaffer]

You have a 1-1/2 frame size too I believe.

[Dean Romig]

AD indicates a manufacturing date of March/1935

The other codes to the left of that core are service or repair dates as indicated by the 3.




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[Dave Noreen]

AD A = March D = 1935

RD3 R = November D = 1935 3 = repair

XE3 X = December E = 1936 3 = repair

Unfortunately, no records of what repair was done survive.

Interesting that the gun has PARKER on the bottom of the frame and a Remington date code on the barrel flat but has the PARKER BROS. rather than PARKER GUN WORKS - OVERLOAD PROVED stamp.

[Dean Romig]

Either of the two repair dates could have been when the forend wood was replaced.





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[Bill Murphy]

What a gun.

[J. Scott Hanes]

Appears to have a minor wood repair on the left side but a stunning gun.

[Randy G Roberts]

Looks like the stock has an inlay in the wrist to me which I would assume is there to hide a pin. Hard to say with those pics for sure.

[Jeffrey Eley]

Yeah, I just looked, the inlays in the wrist are on both sides (All the way thru). You are most likely correct, probably there to hide a pin\repair job. I don't know anything about that type of work, but whoever (Parker?) did it did a fantastic job.
Again, thanks to everyone who has responded to my thread, i'm learning a lot about it and definitely feel blessed that I now own it.

[J. Scott Hanes]

Probably would be a good idea to have the stock checked to make sure it has been repaired correctly before you shoot it much. Better to be sure.

[Jeffrey Eley]

Hey everyone I decided to take a closer look at those diamond shaped "inlays" and here are two pics. Thanks to everyone who offered helpful info to me.

[Dean Romig]

Yes, those are definitely to cover a stock head repair where the stock head had split. A through bolt and nut were likely used. Not a bad job. We've seem similar repairs.
Wonder if one of those Remington service dates would have been for that repair... but we'll never know. The type of service was never recorded.




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[Jeffrey Eley]

Dean,
Thanks for all of your input!

[Brian Dudley]

Looks like the stock has an inlay in the wrist to me which I would assume is there to hide a pin. Hard to say with those pics for sure.

Yeah, I didnt even notice those without blowing the photos up. Two diamond inlays in the head.

[Dean Romig]

AD A = March D = 1935

RD3 R = November D = 1935 3 = repair

XE3 X = December E = 1936 3 = repair

Unfortunately, no records of what repair was done survive.

Interesting that the gun has PARKER on the bottom of the frame and a Remington date code on the barrel flat but has the PARKER BROS. rather than PARKER GUN WORKS - OVERLOAD PROVED stamp.


The manufacture of the gun could have begun prior to the 1934 date when Remington took control of the Parker Gun Works but finished and shipped during Remington ownership...?





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[Keith Doty]

WOW! Very nice and an heirloom to boot.

[Arthur Shaffer]

I just read this due to a much later thread, but I do have to make one comment based on many of the posts made in this thread. While it is a beautiful gun, I have to say based on a lot of experience in woodworking, a little of it on guns, that I don't share the opinion of the work done on the inlays. While they are well color matched, the joint around them is not of a caliber that would be seen on any well executed piece of furniture or, particularly, a quality musical instrument. These were placed on flat sections of the stock so they should be expected to meet the same criteria. While the workmanship, I think, lacks a little, what caused me to post was that I think the worker made no attempt to match the grain. While these are relatively small and from a piece with similar color and grain, they were inlaid at a ridiculous angle of the stockwood grain. These should have closely followed the grain layout of the stock. If that had been done and a little more care taken with the patch inletting, the inlays would have beenalmost invisible without needing the cheeks checkered to cover it.

I'm not trying to be picky but it seems incongruent for work done on a hig level/ high condition gun.

The fact remains that it is a nice gun. If it were mine, I might be tempted instead of checkering the cheeks to have someone good redo the repairs to the cheeks.