Straight stocks are just the best!

[Jay Oliver]

Here are my latest two Parkers and a good reminder that straight stock Parkers are the only way to go. This is an “all else equal” point of view. I have some Parkers that are pistol grips and I feel fortunate to own them. However, the fact remains I wish they were straight stocked guns.

Let me tell you about these recent ones:

On top: A bucket list gun for me!: 28ga VH 30” Barrels on a #0 frame. Weighs 6lbs 2oz.

On Bottom: A nice light weight 12: 12ga GH 28” Damascus Barrels on a #1 frame. Weighs 6lbs. 11oz.

Had a lot of fun shooting both of these at Addieville yesterday. I could not be happier with these 2 “new to me” Parkers!

[Garry L Gordon]

Total agreement here. The same goes for two triggers. (And nix the beaver tails.)

[Jim Beilke]

I am a sucker for straight grip, splinter forearm any make, simply beautiful. A joy to look at and handle.

[allen newell]

Jay, next time you want to go to Addieville let me know. I'll be happy to go with you

[Andrew Sacco]

I love the looks of straight stockers and I have a number of them but I shoot pistol grips much better at sporting clays. Bird hunting not such a big deal but I much prefer pistol grips for clay sports. I got a straight aYa No. 2 in 20g in Sanford that I loved and love but it's not the best clays gun. I have a 32" and 30" 12g VH (one a live bird gun) with straight grips that I am anguishing over selling, I just don't shoot them well. Now, bring me an English straight gripper 12g with 28" barrels for 2" shells weighing less than 6lbs that fits and is choked Skeet/IC and I'm a buyer. That would be like being setting me up with Paige Spirinac on a blind date. I wouldn't know what to do with either one : )

[Jay Oliver]

I love the looks of straight stockers and I have a number of them but I shoot pistol grips much better at sporting clays.

Andy I have heard a lot of people say that about pistol grips being the better shooters. I think if there is any difference for me and I don't think there is much, I shoot the straight stocked gun better. The few guns I have had re-stocked are straight gripped to my dimensions.

If you considering moving a straight gripped 32" VH let me know. Maybe I can trade you a pistol gipped Parker you like for it! Everyone wins :)

[Dean Romig]

My Gawsh… Jay Oliver shooting boxlock Parkers:eek:

But I do love the straight grip guns, most especially Parkers, and though the splinter forends lend themselves to much sleeker, more aesthetic lines, I sure like a beavertail on the smaller gauges, like the 28 gauge Skeet gun I recently parted with. I think in that case I have better control of pointing the barrels faster… but that’s just me.
My second favorite is the true ball grip as my Lifters have… not the “half pistol grip” or the round knob grip, but the true ball grip with the slender grip with the exaggerated swollen ball… but again, that’s just me.





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[Andrew Sacco]

Andy I have heard a lot of people say that about pistol grips being the better shooters. I think if there is any difference for me and I don't think there is much, I shoot the straight stocked gun better. The few guns I have had re-stocked are straight gripped to my dimensions.

If you considering moving a straight gripped 32" VH let me know. Maybe I can trade you a pistol gipped Parker you like for it! Everyone wins :)

We should talk buddy : O

[Craig Larter]

I like all the Parker stock offerings, but I prefer straight grips. I am fortunate to own a few.First Picture-top 20ga DH 0 frame, bottom 12ga DHE 2 frame.
Second picture- top AH 12ga 2 frame, bottom BHE 12ga 2 frame.

[Craig Larter]

delete

[Jay Gardner]

https://imgur.com/gallery/FAGmgz9#RP8QcbL

16 DH, 28” damascus barrels.

[Frank G Riess]

I think straight grips are more pleasing to look at but pistol grips for me more comfortable to shoot. A hundred rounds of sporting clays with a straight grip stock and my middle finger on my trigger hand gets pretty sore.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Beautiful guns Jay, I too, am a fan of the straight grip. I have but one in a Parker. DHE 16 with 26 in barrels and weighs 6 lbs even. I do have 3 Ugartechea's and my favorite a straight grip Scottish hammer 20 with 30 in barrels at 5 1/2 lbs.

[Mike Koneski]

I’m a sucker for straight-grippers, double-triggers and because they sit better in my palm, a beaver-tail. :cool:

[CraigThompson]

I’m in favor of straight grip guns even though I had one come apart in my hands at a Colombaire shoot in August . I say come apart , the stock came apart in the wrist . But in its defense the gun had broken and been repaired twice in the same place before I ever acquired it . I had a Westley Richards straight grip boxlock 12 26” that I shot very well , a DH safety delete 32” pigeon gun , a DHE 20 gage 30” , a VHE 12 26” skeet , a VHE 16 26” skeet , a Grade 2 TL 10 32” and an IJ Hercules 410 26” . Shot them all quite well . I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again I do equally well or equally bad (however you care to look at it) with a straight grip or pistol grip , what’s more I say the same thing about a SxS vs an O/U .

[Dave Noreen]

I think straight grips are more pleasing to look at but pistol grips for me more comfortable to shoot. A hundred rounds of sporting clays with a straight grip stock and my middle finger on my trigger hand gets pretty sore.

Must be something wrong with (A) your trigger guard or (B) your grip. I've shot tens of thousands of rounds through my double trigger Fox Sterlingworth Ejector Skeet & Upland Game Gun and/or my single trigger Fox SPE-Grade Skeet & Upland Game Gun and hunted most of my life with straight grip doubles with no finger issues.

The only thing better than a straight grip Parker Bros. is a straight grip Ansley H. Fox!!

[Phil Yearout]

Nobody asked me, but I prefer semi- pistols (I guess they’re called, or maybe Prince of Wales?) like the round knob many Foxes have. I like the way they feel and the way they look on the gun. JMO.

[allen newell]

As long as the gun fits me I don't give a hoot whether it's got a pistol grip or not. I shoot both styles regularly

[Gerald McPherson]

Arthritis in the fingers doesn't help much.

[allen newell]

Arthritis in the fingers is a pain in the ass. Just sayin

[edgarspencer]

Ouch, Brings back memories of my old doctor.

[allen newell]

Old doctors never die. They just fade away..

[edgarspencer]

I think straight grips are more pleasing to look at but pistol grips for me more comfortable to shoot. A hundred rounds of sporting clays with a straight grip stock and my middle finger on my trigger hand gets pretty sore.

The gun I shoot the best at sporting clays is a straight stocked VH28, But, like Frank (except it's my left hand, being a southpaw) my grip is hell on my middle finger. I begin to notice it about station 4 or 5. By bedtime, it's really barking at me.

[Dave Noreen]

Nobody asked me, but I prefer semi- pistols (I guess they’re called, or maybe Prince of Wales?) like the round knob many Foxes have. I like the way they feel and the way they look on the gun. JMO.

My father claimed the half-pistol grips on his Remington doubles were the best of both worlds.

[Phil Yearout]

I don't own or shoot any straight stock guns but I've had my finger banged. So I don't take any chances; every doublegun gets one of these the minute I acquire it. I don't wait to see if it will bite me because it only had to happen to me once for me to want to make sure it never happens again. Not the best look maybe but it beats a sore finger. I even have one on my Parker SBT which for some reason has banged me a time or two; hasn't happened with my Fox or Ithaca SBT...yet.

https://i.imgur.com/jzm9OFTl.jpg

[Phil Yearout]

My father claimed the half-pistol grips on his Remington doubles were the best of both worlds.

Agreed :)!

[John Davis]

My Doubles trap gun is a straight stock. Combine that with horizontal barrels and double triggers and I get a lot of side eyed looks on the trap line. :eek:

[Dave Noreen]

Up into the 1930s a straight grip was pretty common on trap guns.

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[Don Anderson]

I shoot sporting clays every Wed morning with a group of retired friends and yesterday I shot my straight grip Parker GHE. It took me a station or 2 to reconnect with the Parker but for the rest of the round I shot as good or better than I do with my K80.

I love ink balling clays with a 7/8oz load from the full and fuller chokes and it's just a better round of clays when I'm shooting a Parker.

https://i.imgur.com/H4d5Jn1.jpg

[Stan Hillis]

I love the looks of a straight grip double, and I shoot the little .410s decently when so stocked. But, I do not like them at all on target guns and duck guns with heavy loads.

Here is an excerpt from Rollin Oswald's excellent book, Stock Fitters Bible concerning straight grips:

"The classic English stock was not for all Englishmen. These stocks place the trigger hand in a somewhat awkward position relative to the triggers and did/do not offer the purchase necessary to easily pull the gun back snugly to the shoulder. They also position the cheek on the comb in such a way that risks injury."

He also said this concerning finger bruising:

" A grip that is too small for a male shooter may allow the back of the trigger guard to whack the knuckle of the middle finger. This is likely to occur when the grip diameter (distance from the trigger to the inside of the lower grip) is inadequate."

Notice that he was referencing pistol grips in the above statement, but I have found it to be equally true with straight grips.