Info on a SXS

[Troy Hockensmith]

Hello,
Did an impulse buy on a gun and think by doing searches here it might be a hoax. No biggy as all education has tuition. Now I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck but I really don’t follow these old shotguns much and wasn’t aware of the pitfalls. I am however skeptical by nature and looked at it pretty hard. Either way it makes good western decor. It’s got a bunch of Wells Fargo markings and I have to admit, if someone was faking it they went to a lot of trouble. Then again, if it was Wells Fargo they went to a lot of trouble marking it as theirs.
Here goes on the description. It’s a Parker Brothers sXs with a 21” Laminated barrel. That’s one heavy set of barrels. The Frame size is a 3 so that nails it down as a 10 Gauge. Serial# is 76280 and it matches the fore stock. That makes the manufacture in 1892. There are two badges on it. A larger one on the right side of the stock that has Wells Fargo EXPRESS and 1894 on it. There is also a small one on the top of the stock just aft of the top lever. That one shows a lot of wear. There are several other markings in the wood that is all subject to debate if it’s authentic or not but there is enough to say someone had to have a lot of different stamps to do it. There are also two tiny little stamps on the water table that has WF&CO. Once again, all I can say is if someone faked it they went to a lot of trouble. Then again, if Wells Fargo marked it they went to a lot of trouble.
If anyone can fill in any blanks for this gun I’d appreciate it. Short of a letter that indicates it was sold to WF all we can do is speculate on their markings. Not sure I want to drop a bill to find out it wasn’t. Might just put it on the wall and talk about what could be.

[Russ Jackson]

Hello Troy , and Welcome aboard !! In the Parker Serialization Book ,your Gun is listed as , { PT ,T ,0 , C ,10 , 32 } PT = P Grade " Grade 1 ,With ,T = Twist barrels , T = Top Action ,0 ,= No extras ,Ejectors etc. , C = Capped Pistol Grip Stock , 10 = Gauge , 32 = 32" Barrels ! With that said ,there are times the Serialization Book has mistakes in it ,or possibly WF ,did the gun to suit them ! We would all like to invite you to become a PGCA Member and with the $40.00 Membership fee ,there is a nice discount on purchasing a letter ! You will be able to Purchase a letter for $ 40.00 ,and will also have access to our " Guns For Sale section which will aide in the next purchase of another Parker Shotgun ! Best ; Russ

[Troy Hockensmith]

Thank you Russ. I was pretty sure the barrel had seen some "work".

[Russ Jackson]

You are quite Welcome Troy ,I believe we all figured the Barrels had seen some work ! Still ,wouldn't hurt to have a letter on the gun ,If you decide to display it on the wall as you have said ,you would have the info. on the gun ,some letters haven't much info. while others often have some very interesting facts about it ! Russ

[Troy Hockensmith]

Here is an additional photo of the left side of the stock. They went out of their way marking this one up.

[Troy Hockensmith]

Hmm. That small badge just behind the top lever was something that had me looking hard at this as wells fargo. I see now a couple examples of it on some old parker guns and assume they original to the guns from parker. Was it put there by parker and was there a reason?

[Dave Suponski]

Troy, The badge is a factory item. It was used for owners initials if they so chose to have it done.

[Troy Hockensmith]

Thank you Dave.

[Richard Flanders]

One can only hope it's an authentic WF gun. Even if it isn't, it's one hell of a great wall hanger!!

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I see one of these "Wells Fargo" guns at every hillbilly gun show. That's not meant as an insult, I'm a hillbilly myself. I'm afraid that 99.99999% of them are faked up. If they're a Parker and they don't letter or have some other kind of provenance to make them real then they're just what you see. An old sawed off shotgun that somebody has added markings to. I think if you'll search GunBroker you'll find several of various types for sale for everything from reasonable to ridiculous.

[Bill Murphy]

Walt Snyder, I believe, has listed serial numbers of documented Wells Fargo guns made by Ithaca. No such luck with Parkers. I guess we could have looked for "Wells Fargo" in the customer index of Parker order books when we copied the records in 1998, but we were a bit pressed for time.

[Troy Hockensmith]

Thank you Bill for the response. It would be helpful because as it stands, with the magnitude of the counterfeiting problem coupled with Wells Fargo’s position as outlined in #10 https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/history/faqs#Q10 the odds of taking the gamble on a letter adding another $100 to a gun that already has a taint to it doesn’t seem like a risk work taking considering the track record. Since firearm acquisition was not a centralized function of the company and was done locally it can be assumed there was no standard for marking inventory as well. The odds of a gun lettering to Wells Fargo when the likelihood is it was probably purchased from a hardware or mercantile store hardly seems worth the trouble. However, if there was some official tool available to distinguish what is known and has a confirmed documented link to parker rather than all WF marked parker guns being treated as suspect can only help the collectability of the confirmed gun. It would also clarify if there were parker guns that are confirmed sold to WF if they were marked in any way to help provide insight for confirming counterfeits. Can you imagine the collectability of a WF marked parker gun that can be confirmed with a positive link to parker. We can only dream.