Thank you, Dr. Pruitt, for the pat on the back to the research committee who copied the records. Allan and I are both members of that committee. The "committee" did not copy the stock books, nor could we have. We would have been in Ilion for another two weeks or more. When we were in Ilion, Commander Gunther visited us at lunch one day and presented us with the stock book copies that he had done, and will never be done again. This is the information that Charlie Price used to create the Serialization Book. Eight or ten of us spent five long days just copying the order books and IBM cards, which was an easy job compared to what Commander Gunther had done earlier. I have no idea how much help he had, but whatever, it was an heroic task. Once we copied the 30,000 pages and hundreds of IBM cards, they had to be bound, another weeks long job. To be honest, when you find a gun at a show, the frame size is right in front of you. You don't need research material to identify what you are looking at. Thank you, Allan, for your comments and for your company at Ilion so many years ago. Bill Murphy

Yes, agreed. I wouldn't dare argue the obvious. But, I would expand on your statement to say that if someone is looking for or thinks they may own something rare, it would be interesting to know how many may or may not exist. Someone made the statement to me that "there can't be many Grade 2 16s on a 0 frame". Well, I wonder what that number might be...

I started this thread because I'm a numbers guy and those sort of statistics intrigue me. I was hoping they might exist somewhere.

You must remember that the statistics found in The Parker Story were just estimates extrapolated from the surviving order and stock books. I find it strange when people quote only x amount of guns were made in a certain configuration. They don't know what the total amount is, nobody does.

Yes, of course. These numbers should never be taken as absolutes. They were best estimates derived from a partial record that has been lost over time. However, the statistics were worthy of inclusion in the impressive Parker Story project and they are certainly fun to think about and to discuss. The search for discovery is always half the fun when it comes to collecting.

Not to state the obvious, but a few years of reading auction catalogs, spending time on the internet, attending side by side shoots and high quality gun shows and you will have a handle on the most important pieces of knowledge you need to write a check . Before we have that experience, we shouldn't be spending a lot of money on supposedly rare guns.

:rolleyes:

Allan is correct in that there was a size limitation issue in copying the stock books.The copying machine was not large enough to copy the entire stock book page.
Therefore, a decision had to be made as to what was most important for inclusion in The Parker Story and for collectors. As i recall the frame size was at
the end of the page or near it. Remington loaned the use of their copying machine and when the copying was completed the machine was no longer functional and had served its useful life. Roy Gunter traveled to Remington from Averill Park, NY every day for a month to copy the stock books working long hours. A labor of love for all the authors and all who helped make it a reality!
In all it was an eight year project from inception to competition of both volumes.

Hence, the qualifier when claiming a specific number according to TPS would be X "known".





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In regards to the statistics in THE PARKER STORY the numbers given reflect the actual information taken from the Stock and Order Books that were available to
us. A mathematical formula was derived by Charlie Price (a computer engineer)
to include grades, gauges, etc. from the missing books. Information/statistics
in the Books immediately before and after missing records were taken into account to derive the final count. While that is not an exact science it projected
a number as close to reality as possible. Having said all this I recall a statement
made by the late Jack Puglisi: " In the final analysis the gun has to speak for
itself."

How many DHE's 12 ga with 31 inch barrels were made? Rare config?