Help With My Parker

[Jason Browning]

This is a Parker I bought through a friend. Its my first one. Its stamped V only, and O for frame size 20ga. In all my research i can't find one with wood like this but a V. Also I think the butt pad is not original. I could use somebody expertise and advice. I'm assuming that its been redone in the past. Thanks in Advance. I have ordered the letter from this site.

[Dylan Rhodes]

It has been redone and the butt pad is not original, you are correct.

[Mike Franzen]

It appears to me all of the wood has been replaced. Congratulations on your first parker.

[Keith Doty]

New wood for sure. Post some pics of the receiver , water table, and barrels. A nice find, recommend shooting it often, you cannot wear it out.

[Jason Browning]

Pics of receiver.

[Dan Steingraber]

Yep, hammerless 20 gauge, extractor gun with 26” barrels and a capped pistol grip per the serialization book. 1904. Great gun. Parker 20’s are my favorite.

[Dave Noreen]

The new wood should give you nice modern shooting dimensions.

Some things to consider. Your gun is of 1904 vintage. At that time the "standard" 20-gauge shell in North America was 2 1/2-inch. The heaviest loads offered in that 2 1/2-inch 20-gauge shell were 2 1/4-drams of bulk smokeless powder or 18-grains of dense smokeless powder such as Infallible or Ballistite pushing 7/8-ounce of shot. With Parker Bros. practice of holding chambers 1/8-inch shorter than the intended shell, unless they have been lengthened, the chambers were likely 2 3/8-inch when they left Meriden. I have a VH, 0-frame, 20-gauge of 1930 vintage and it has the 2 3/8-inch chambers.

1904 was long before beavertail forearms were a thing, so your gun likely does not have the reinforced forearm loop that Parker Bros. added when they began offering beavertail forearms.

135039

A firm grip on a beavertail forearm puts a lot more strain on the forearm loop during recoil than a hand on the barrels over the tip of a slim forearm --

135040

[Keith Doty]

Recommend taking a look at the reloading forum, several of us were discussing light, low pressure 2 1/2" 7/8 oz loads. I have 3 "0" frame 20s scattered over 25 years of production and shoot the same in all. Great dove and quail guns. Not too many woodcock in South Texas!
To get an accurate idea of chokes you'll need to measure barrels and do the math, drop in gauges probably not the way to go with this gun.

[Jason Browning]

Researcher, you are correct. Thanks for the information.

[Jason Browning]

Thank you Kieth. Not too many woodcocks here in southern NM either!

[Dave Noreen]

I would like to think the original owners of these guns knew what ammunition they were made for and acted accordingly. But when they passed them on, most likely without the hang-tag they came with telling what shell to use they started digesting any old ammunition the owner could stuff in them. Our North American ammunition manufacturers offered 2 1/2-inch 20-gauge shells up to WW-II, but after WW-II only 2 3/4-inch 20-gauge shells were offered. I just measured the length of a fist full of nominally 2 3/4-inch loaded 20-gauge shells with the post WW-II pie crimp and got anywhere from 2.305" to 2.335" all would easily fit into that 2.375" chamber. Those shells could be anywhere from 2 1/4-dram equiv. 7/8-ounce loads to the maximum 1 1/8-ounce 2 3/4-inch Magnums. I suspect that the recoil forces of a steady diet of such shells from the late 1940s into the 1990s when we started worrying about such things did in the heads of a lot of vintage 20-gauge double's stocks.

[Larry Stauch]

BTW, the roll pin or hinge pin on that gun looks to have been reversed, since the slot is normally on the left side of the gun.

[Kevin McCormack]

Agree 100% with the impact on the wood theorem, but so far as chamber effects it brings to mind the old quip about a thermos keeping things hot or cold - "How do it know?"

[William Woods]

Agree 100% with the impact on the wood theorem, but so far as chamber effects it brings to mind the old quip about a thermos keeping things hot or cold - "How do it know?"

I was attending a talk given by former player and coach Mike Ditka. He told a story that during a team meeting when he was with the Bears, the talk got around to a discusion of what the greatest invention of all time would have been. When William "The Refrigerator" Perry's turn came, he said he thought it was the thermos. Fridge was asked why he thought so, and his reply was the same thing; "It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold, How does it know to do that?". True story as told from "Iron MIke".