I've been shooting my SBT weekly and it is doing fine. I've been shooting it along with an ancient (1923) Model 12 that has had a lot of bending done to the stock, so it's comb is high and has cast off so it is a good shooter, but my SC Parker shoot better for me.

I like shooting old shotguns. So I shoot a Fox Sterlingworth, Model 37's, Parkers, Model 12s and an I grade Lefever. I also have a new Browning Gold Fusion that I could not pass up when I found it at a local gun show, used and cheap.

The low combs of my old guns is a handicap. I don't care.

Took my SBT SC to the trap range yesterday. It was the third time I've shot the gun. I had to find out where it was shooting and then broke 23, which means 25 isn't far behind!

They have a gun rack where the guys line up their shotguns. Some very fancy guns believe me. I like setting my ca. 1918 Parker along side those others. My guns is not as nice as the SB shown above, but boy does she shoot! Fits me like a glove. I'm excited. The head guy said that as soon as I break 25 straight I get a patch, then ohttp://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...hotguns003.jpgne for 50, 100, 150 etc. Not there yet, but me and my old Parker SBT are on our way!

Went out to the club today. Two rounds of 16s. Didn't do so well. Missed six and then five. No good. Need to shoot more. I was trying something new, catching the shells as they are ejected from the gun, so I was fumbling with shells and it broke my consentration. Is that enough of an excuse?

I need to do better. Most of those guys miss one or maybe two. Don't see many 25s. Guy showed me his fancy shotgun. Said it cost $16,000! Most of these guys are shooting guns that cost about what a car costs. Fine with me. At 16's they are shooting modified and improved modified chokes. Thinking about taking my Superposed out there that is Mod and Full just for the heck of it. But I am still a Parker guy, I just don't want to embarrass the gun by missing.

Hi Steve. I enjoy reading your adventures with your SBT. I have one and love to shoot it too. Keep the posts coming.

Has anyone out there in Parkerdom tried the 3/4 oz loads the guys are raving about in the reloading thread at trap? I have been using both 1 oz and 7/8 oz loads and the results are generally indistinguishable. Normal 1 1/8th oz loads are very tiring.

I started the summer season as always using a relatively late made VH (bored tight and really tight). I acquired a nice SBT SC early summer and have used it exclusively since its arrival. It is brutally tight as well (83 + percent with old shells). Someone told me Parker expected them to be used at the 23 + yard station. That may be an urban legend. At any rate guys who are a far better trap shooters than I love the SBT at the handicap distances. I am a p1$$ poor trap shooter (but an excellent skeet guy). At 16 yds any load crushes (or misses) targets.

Trap is the only game here in town in Spirit Lake (home of Fred Gilbert, Johnny Jahn, and Bob Allen (all ATA Hall of Fame-ers). Skeet is just another 5 letter word.

Jeff Christie

I use 1 oz. skeet wads for the 16 yard targets. The pattern opens slightly faster. I use 1 1/8 cb wads for 23 yard handicap. I have to work really hard to break all 25 on 16's. Have broke better scores from the 23, compared to 16's, many times. They truely are great handicap guns.

My son Danny shoots my SC with 1 oz. loads at 16 yards and also handicap.I have not as of yet tried the 3/4 oz loads but soon will. He likes to fool around and wait till they are dropping and then smash them. Oh to have young eyes and reflexes....:rolleyes: But I firmly believe that the chokes Parker put in these guns are truly wonderful.

I now shoot 3/4oz. loads at everything. Trap, skeet, 5-stand, wobble trap and sporting clays and a game we at my gun club call Chinese skeet. We start the round with 25 shells and shoot the wobble trap only it's shot from the skeet stations. You must break 2 targets before you can leave the station and you have 4 shots to do it with. Stations 1-7 are the normal skeet stations but if you make it to station 8 the lead shooter can pick any spot he likes to shoot from. By that time everyone is down to 4-5 shells and as you run out of shells you're done. The average distance for these targets is 45-50yds. and the wobble trap can throw some wicked targets. I've not felt handicapped with the 3/4oz load. Dave is right, my Parker double trap throws wonderful patterns that just crushes targets with that light load.

Just today I was reading one of Jack O'Connor's books on shooting. Discussing shotshell loads he said that ligher softer shooting shells produce better patterns than hard shooting heavy loads and that feels right to me. If O'Connor is indeed correct then a 3/4 load would outperform the 1 oz load.

Just finished reading an article in Double Gun (2011 issue) about Parker SBTs. Said that most of them are bored for 2 5/8 inch shells, but were advertised as being able to accept 2 3/4 inchers even if they had the shorter chamber. I've been shooting mine right along with 2 3/4ers.

Annie Oakley in 1925 was shooting an SBT SC. No one knows the guns serial number. Gee do you think I'm shooting Annie Oakley's gun? In the well known picture of her shooting her Parker one can see it has a splinter forearm. Mine's got a beaver tail that looks like a factory replacement since it does not match the stock very well.

Going out tomorrow morning to shoot trap with it. It is always a thrill to shoot that ancient Parker SBT.

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Steve, if you can show me a picture of a splinter forend on a Parker SBT I'd appreciate it cause I've never seen one. The picture of Annie shooting at the 1925 Grand and the examples of your SBT forend are all beavertail forends.

I'd bet your forend is original to the gun.

Chuck: This is all I've got of the forearm. http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...hotguns144.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...hotguns009.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...hotguns004.jpg

Are all SBT forearms beaver tail? I don't know, but since mine does not match the butt stock at all I figured it was a replacement.

Here's what I've got Chuck. The forearm does not match the stock very well, which is very nice, as you can see. There is a sizable chip out of the bottom of the wrist alongside the lower tang, but I'm not going to do anything about it. Call it patina.

No marks at all at the breech end of the barrel. It is an early SBT, 177853, I think (from memory). I have only seen one earlier and that was in the pages of the Parker magazine.

Not the best focus, but you can see it's an early SBT and obviously a SC.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...hotguns139.jpg

Your forearm looks like an original. Nice early gun with scroll on the trigger plate. My first Parker single is #177,741, traded a pair of Model 21s for it. It came with the original case and tags and in new condition. I didn't want to give up the Model 21s, but I had no money and I had to have the trap gun. I have shot that SC since 1973 and the receiver is not as nice as it was when it came home with me, but I wouldn't miss forty years of shooting all those targets in good weather and bad.

The forend is a Parker forend but is the wood original to the gun? It could also be that the straight stock is a replacement and not original and that's why the colors don't match. Is the S/N of the gun and a 4 stamped in the wood under the trigger guard? If it's there, then it's possible the wood has been refinished to a different color or Parker just did a poor match of color.

The mullered borders of the forend appear to be slightly different from the mullered borders of the stock - or maybe it's just the quality of the pictures.

Indeed the stock could be a replacement, but it sure fits well, as original Parker wood does. I have not removed the trigger guard because I hate to mess with the screws, even tho I have good screw drivers. The S# on the inside of the forearm matches the gun and the case colors glow. No color on the lower tang so it was shot quite a bit. Original owner was Ray Folger, of coffee fame. Pretty good sized chip missing alongside the lower tang, as if someone removed the trigger guard and pulled off a piece off wood with it. I've seen that happen before. The chiped place is slightly worn, so the gun was shot after it was damaged, probably by the original owner.

It was badly stored. When I got it, it had been kept in a cheap plastic case which did not breath. The gun was literally coated with rust and the pad was trash. I very carefully removed the rust, but the gun still shows some pitting. Paid $1500 for the gun to the son-in-law of the original owner. The man was burglerized and they took all of his shotguns (a complete group of 21s) but this one.

I shoot this shotgun weekly. Last year I shot mostly skeet, but this coming spring/summer I'm going to concentrate on trap and shooting this great, classic Parker.

I'm still trying to produce close up and in focus photos to post here. My eyes, ears and everything else is getting old. Okay, it's an excuse and we know what excuses are don't we.

We do....