First time out in a while.

[Brian Dudley]

Today was the first time on the Skeet field in a while for me. A couple rounds of shooting with some friends. It was also the first time back on the field for the gun. Possibly as much as 80 years for this VHE skeet gun. Originally made in mid 1934 in Meriden as a pistol grip gun. It was then in Remington inventory as “available for refurbishing” in 1942. It was restocked in straight grip by the Ilion factory and completely refurbished. Then it never left. It spent most of its life hanging on the wall of the Museum in Ilion. It is a good example of what a basically brand new Ilion made Parker would look like.

144120

144121

144122

144123

[allen newell]

Beautiful Brian

[J. Scott Hanes]

Congrats on getting that gun, Brian. I assume the stock comb is pretty straight, now?

[David Livesay]

I like that a lot Brian. It's beautiful.

[Dylan Rhodes]

Nice gun Brian. This brings me back to a curiosity I have raised before. The checkering on this gun is intentionally darkened by Ilion, or is the lighting playing games?

[Don Anderson]

That is a beautiful gun with a great story behind it.

How did it shoot? Does it fit you well? 12ga I assume?

[Mike Franzen]

So how did you get that beauty off the museum wall?

[Brian Dudley]

Nice gun Brian. This brings me back to a curiosity I have raised before. The checkering on this gun is intentionally darkened by Ilion, or is the lighting playing games?

That is what they looked like when new. I also have a Meriden gun that never left the company that is the same way. And people ask me why I darken the checkering on Parkers I stock. Because that is how they were done.

[Brian Dudley]

That is a beautiful gun with a great story behind it.

How did it shoot? Does it fit you well? 12ga I assume?

It shot pretty well for me. And the single trigger worked great. When I got the gun, the sears had been removed from it for museum display. So I had to put new sears in it and fortunately it went smoothly. And I had to clean decades of crud off the whole gun. It was filthy. It is a 12g. 26” barrels. Like I said, the gun was originally a pistol grip gun, but it was made as an ejector single trigger gun with a btfe. But Ilion restocked it to straight grip and also replaced the forend along with the stock. The gun is it interesting in that is is not actually “skeet choked”. It is mod choked in both barrels. And it has a bhbp. Not the “catalog” checkered butt. The records specifically call it a “skeet special” on the Ilion IBM cards. I guess it goes back to the discussion had here a while back about what makes a Skeet gun a Skeet gun.

[Brett Trimble]

Brian,

Thanks so much for sharing these pictures.. so very interesting!!

I have the impression that the case colors look like Del Grego more than Turnbull colors. Am I imagining that?

Brett

[Brian Dudley]

Brian,

Thanks so much for sharing these pictures.. so very interesting!!

I have the impression that the case colors look like Del Grego more than Turnbull colors. Am I imagining that?

Brett

Remington Ilion factory colors circa mid 1940s. Which is where the Delgrego shop had them done.
To my understanding Ilion used the bone charcoal process on the guns like Meriden did when they made the move from Meriden to Ilion (in 1937). But they were having issues with some parts warping using that process, namely the top lever. So for a time you will see Ilion made guns with bone charcoal colors everywhere but the top lever was cyanide hardened. Then eventually they just went to all Cyanide. But I THINK it was during the War, meaning after normal Parker production. When you got into the Service only period, they used the Cyanide process. I have another gun here that was refurbished by Remington in the 1950s and it is cyanide colored.

This gun records as being “available for refurbishing” in 1942. But who knows when the work was actually done.

[Brett Trimble]

Brian,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Fascinating details!

[Kevin McCormack]

So how did you get that beauty off the museum wall?

Ditto Brian - was this part of the selloff of materials when the factory was shut down after the buyout/bankuptcy? I followed the auction of the machines and other materials but no guns.

[Dylan Rhodes]

That is what they looked like when new. I also have a Meriden gun that never left the company that is the same way. And people ask me why I darken the checkering on Parkers I stock. Because that is how they were done.

Is it an added finish or an artifact of how they were cut? I’ve tinkered with rechecking some low grade beat up guns and the checkering grooves always bothered me. Most recently to combat this I’ve dusted some fine carbon black into fresh cut checkering then applied a single layer of sealer over top to “lock it in”.