Completed Gunbroker auction Parker VH #143000

[will evans]

I started watching this auction as soon as it came online. 14 day auction that started slowly but picked up some nice late action. I am new to Parkers, but I thought this gun looked like a really nice piece. I wonder who picked it up. My thought was that it was either restored, OR that the original owner might have protected the gun due to its nice round serial number #143000. I was hoping to bid on it, but forgot and wouldn't have approached the selling price anyway.

Anyway, now that this auction is complete, is it okay to ask opinions on the gun? Original or refinished? I have no skill at identifying the nuances of Parker stocks and thought this might be a good one from which to learn a few things.


http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=329785361

[Mark Ouellette]

I think it has been restored. The blues in the case colors look too deep. Also the wood looks 100%

[Daryl Corona]

I agree with Mark.

[will evans]

One thing I just noticed for the first time are the weep holes on the bottom of the barrels. Am I correct that a Parker factory gun of that vintage would not have those weep holes when it left the factory? Did a single weep hole appear on the bottom of Ilion barrels?

[Eric Eis]

It's a nice refinished gun, stock, barrels and receiver. Nice shooter

[Brian Dudley]

I too was watching this gun. The whole thing has been restored. Not a bad job for a shooter. There are many things about I that are not correct. The white line pad. The colors on the frame are not correct, but those will fade in time. And the checkering is borderless, which is not correct. It is also fully pointed by the looks of it, also not correct.

[allen newell]

Wasn't that a VHE? Didn't we see the ejectors and 2 screws on the underside/fore end latching?

[Andy Kelley]

Agree the blackness could also be due to a torch. Last time at Orvis Manchester their gunsmith Jordan Smith showed me a Parker frame that had been exposed to a torch in a clumsy attempt to give some color to a worn out fame. The repointing of the checkering looks as old as yesterday.A nice shooter but I don't think it was a loss not to have bid. Nicer Parker's have been offered on this site at a much better value and you are not dealing with an unknown. Andy

[Bill Murphy]

VHE, blued safety button. But the pad?? We know what it is, we just have a hard time equating the pad with the price.

[allen newell]

Pad looks like a pachmayer

[will evans]

VHE, blued safety button. But the pad?? We know what it is, we just have a hard time equating the pad with the price.

Exactly. I love following no reserve auctions for the knowledge you gain on current value. It is a nice looking gun that I had pegged a good bit less than the final price, BUT I also hadn't seen it as having ejectors. Ejectors are such a wildcard in terms of value because so many people value them differently. They don't add much in my book, but some other people seem to be about collecting ejectors as much as the guns themselves. That said, an auction doesn't reach those heights with just one interested bidder. There were obviously at least a couple of people who wanted to add the gun to their collection. I definitely think it is an appealing gun, and the round serial number might have helped to generate interest.

[Brian Dudley]

It depends on if you like chasing shells or not.

[Angel Cruz]

That's why I stick to extractors guns, the club where I hunt does not like empty shells left behind. Besides, I haven't come across a 16ga hammer gun with ejectors.

[edgarspencer]

If an ejector gun was only marginally more than an extractor gun, I'd buy it, but I, too don't put as much importance on them as many. Even when I'm shooting one of my ejector guns, I hold my hand over the shells. I don't leave them in the woods either.
I recently bought a DH whose wood, and frame size more than made up for not having ejectors.

[will evans]

As for leaving shells in the woods, there's not much better than thinking you're in good grouse cover and then finding spent shells lying on the forest floor. Even if I don't put up any birds, I make a point to return another day. Might as well hang a sign for other hunters that reads, "Yup, birds are near!"

[Brian Dudley]

And just a note on the colors on the subject gun of this thread. They are not done with a torch. These are genuine case colors, done by the correct method, or a least one similar. Just the appearance and effect is not correct for a Parker. Maybe after years of handling it won't look all that bad.