Save your shipping money, sir. This gun has never been to the Del Grego shop. There are no factory finished or Del Grego refinished Parkers that look like yours. If knowledge is power, I have shared my power with you, as well as financial advice. Not many #2 frame 26" V Grades out there. Is yours one of them? To answer another of your questions, the order book will not mention the frame size. It is marked on the gun and can be confirmed with a machinist's scale measuring the firing pin separation. By the way, Del Grego does not have any "Parker tanks". No one has ever done any cyanide case coloring in Del Grego's 400 square foot shop. Finally, your gun has never seen the inside of a "quality shop" as you describe it. You have a nice gun, but not because of the work of any gunsmith who has ever touched it.

Anyone who knows me or has dealt with me knows that I am all about helping people. And I know as much as anyone else that one never stops learning new things.

And... I very rarely resort to any sort of sarcasm in my posts.
I just could not help myself in response to the fact that Lawrence Delgrego claims that their shop has case colored 90,000 Parkers.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with you wanting to find out as much information on your VH as possible, and I think thus far you have discovered quite a bit from the knowledgeable people on this forum. Your VH was factory fitted with 26" barrels, it is likely a 2 or maybe a 1-1/2 frame and the metal finishes on the gun are not factory original. All answers to the questions that you ask for answers to.

By the way, if the frame marking is illegible on the barrel lug, you can confirm frame size by measuring the spacing of the firing pin holes on centers, the height of the standing breech and also the width of the breech balls on the outside.

Firing Pin spacing:
2 frame:1-1/8"
1-1/2 frame: 1-1/8"
1 frame: 1-1/16"

Over Breech Balls
2 frame: 2-3/8"
1-1/2 frame: 2-1/4"
1 frame: 2-1/4"

Standing breech:
2 frame: 1-1/4"
1-1/2 frame 1-3/16"
1 frame: 1-3/16"

Brian, hats off to you for your helpful response to the questions asked by Mr Barker. I have been reading this forum for a while and I have never seen a hint of sarcasm in any of your posts!!! This thread included. You are a valuable resource for others reading this forum and are to be commended for taking the high road in the previous post.

Harry

Dudley, thank you for your response. I have learned a lot already from the replies by everyone. The only way I am going to learn anything further in this subject based on my limited resources is to ask questions. When someone questions why I am asking questions, it concerns me that I may be wasting my time in the wrong forum, as my intent is to learn as much as possible by asking those questions and investigating any lead I can. I appreciate the information you provided to help me answer some of those questions.

The best way to learn about Parkers is to buy, study and know The Parker Story, join the PGCA, read the Parker Pages, follow the forum and go to the Southern and look at Parkers. And recognize BS when you hear it.

There are less costly guns to get into than Parkers.

I might believe 9,000, but 90,000 is utterly ridiculous.
Parker, when located in Meriden, where you gun was made, case hardened their receivers by a bone/charcoal/organic method which used "boxes", not tanks. There may have been quench tanks into which the material was dumped, but that just a water tank. This not withstanding, I have never seen case colors like yours on a Delgrego refinished gun.
In the serial range of your gun, I find it difficult to accept that the original top rib was unterminated. A possible scenario may be that the original barrels were lost, and replacement ones cut and fitted. Matching serial numbers means nothing as we've all seen barrels marked correctly by others. A way to determine if they are original in length is to confirm the choke measurements with the order or stock book information. The photo of the muzzle looks like they're rather thick, though a 2 frame gun will have heavy barrels. What is the weight stamp on the barrel flats?

Christopher - It's Mr. Brian Dudley

The weight on the flats is 3^8.

OK, Brian. Most of my friends call each other by our last names. There was no disrespect implied.

3-8 seems a little on the light side for a normal (longer than 26") set of 2 frame barrels. So that supports that they are original 26", that may account for the light I struck weight.
My 1-1/2 frame DHE with 26" barrels has I struck weight of 3-7.
I has a 2 frame VH here with 30" barrels with weight is 4-2.

I am used to the last name only from my high school days. My 2 best friends were both also named Brian. Well, one Brian and the other Bryan. So we all got called by our last names by everyone.