Todd,
Not sure if the very first post John made three or four years ago is still accessible but in it he attached some very special family photos of the gun in his grandfathers gun cabinet along with other guns and his medals and awards. It was a wonderful post except for the part that the gun was no longer in the family. One of the very special moments of my time in the PGCA was being present when John was reunited with this gun through the generosity of another very special member. It was a moment that those of us that were aware will never forget. Perhaps John will grace us once again with some pictures of his incredible family Parker.

Some Opinions From a Shooter of the Time
 

When I scored a copy of Guns, Ammunition & Tackle by A.W. Money and others, copyright 1904, off ebay, it turned out to be quite interesting. The book had been a gift to S. Bruce Elwell from his twin brother Alcott Farrar Elwell in the summer of 1907. These boys were the sons of the famous sculptor Francis E. Elwell. There were two pages from the April 1908 issue of Recreation containing an article by Charles Askins titled "The Problem of Selecting a Shotgun" pasted in the book as well as a handwritten table of his firearms, along with comments. He had five double barrel shotguns --

1. Remington K-Grade 12-ga 30" - Easy action - hard close shooter - one of the best guns ever. 1902 - 07

2. Parker DHE 12-ga 30" - Handsome gun - easy action - some poor features - (too complicated). 1907 - 08

3. Tobin No. 40E 16-ga 28" -- Very poorly made - cheap in every way - Tobin Co. no good. 1907 - 08

4. Lefever FE 16-ga 28" -- Wonderful little gun - fine simple action - good hang - strong, hard hitter. Oct. 1907 --

5. Sauer - bought Jan. 21, 1909, and he never got around to writing comments about it.

On another page in the book he gave names to some of his guns --

12-ga Sauer - "Dixie"
16-ga Lefever - "Beatrice"
30-40 1895 Mod Winchester - "Col. Farrar"
44 Sp'l S&W - "Louis II"

Here is another thought. The Parker owner of 1910 was fortunate in that he was able to buy a brand new gun. However I suspect most folks back then owned just one Parker, whereas few of us have new and unfired but most of us are fortunate enough to own and shoot several.

Hi Pete.
Most folks back then:whistle: i still do hope to get me some more one day.
All the best Dave.:bigbye:

Certain well informed and wealthy familes who owned well stocked gunrooms and sporting estates seem to have regularly included Parker guns in their library. the DuPont family comes to mind. Their Parkers were frequently high grade and of unusual specification. I have previously posted photos of a DuPont gun from my collection and a 16 ga A grade lifter actioned gun owned by a friend. That gun has Whitworth fluid steel barrels.

There was a question about the early AAH 12 ga. When Charlie owned it he had a nice article written and professional photos taken for publication in the Double Gun Journal. There are many fine Parkers in various DGJ articles.

I remember five or six years ago Steve Barnett had a few of DuPont's DHE skeet guns in twenty and twenty-eight gauge. They were magnificent!!

Would love to see pictures of that double trap!

Well JD how about it...? Or are you still trying to figure out how to post pictures......:rotf::rotf::rotf: :corn:

Lets go show me the PICTURES