John look under the rib sometimes the serial number is there.

On original Parker ventilated ribs the last three digits of the serial number are 'always' there.

Generally between the 2nd and 3rd 'bosses' from the breech.





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I don't have a dental mirror but wearing my superman specs I can see three numbers engraved on the underside of the rib between the 1st and 2nd post

I own a documented vent rib gun with no numbers stamped under the rib.

Well, we have learned that when it comes to Parkers to "never say never" but as well, never say always either.





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John you stated that you know or think you know how many trap Parkers were made. It appears you are referring to double trap guns, right? If so I am curious, how many ?? Thanks !

Randy, I'm pretty sure I read in TPS that just over 200 (205? I think?) purpose-built double trap guns were made during the later years when "Trap" guns were so named.

My understanding is that these 200+ "Trap" guns are included in the total number of guns with vent ribs (referencing the numbers I shared in an earlier post).

Got it John, thanks. Also I did check out a B grade gun I have that letters with the VR and the last 3 digits of the serial # were there between the 1st and
2nd post.

Trap guns were made during a period with how many missing stock books? The answer seems to be four, if you consider that traps guns go back to around 1923. This is 12,000 missing guns out of about 36,000 or 37,000 guns. Does that explain why TPS says there are four P Grade trap gun in total when I have owned or seen at least a half dozen, and I don't get out much. I thought the authors were supposed to have "extrapolated" the production numbers based on present and missing stock books. If that is the case, I now own half of the P Grade trap guns produced, according to TPS yet my experience tells me that there are many more. Since vent rib guns were in their heyday during the years that a third of stock books were unavailable for research, I think that we will never know much about vent rib and trap gun production. Your guess is as good as mine. The "Trap Gun" subchapter in TPS made a valiant attempt to explain the difficulty of determining total production of trap guns and vent ribs. Pages 401-2 and some previous pages in TPS.

Just returned from shooting two rounds of trap with the vent DHE. What fun! First time in at least 5 years I've shot trap and didn't realize just how much I missed the fun. Now I'll need to find a dedicated trap gun. However, being as out-of-practice as I was the gun and I still got along quite well.

And while cleaning up the old gal just now I did confirm that the last three digits are indeed engraved underneath the rib between the first and second post.