I would tell the sob that stole the gun that here is your opportunity to redeem yourself, you had better buy the gun at any expense or I am turning you in.

I would work this backwards. The shop selling it now would be informed it is stolen and find out who sold it to them and so on and so forth initial itgot back to the original pawn shop that bought it from the thief. Thenbring the thief in to confess or turn him over to police and BATF.

The gun looks the same in the pictures only the barrels appear to be less vivid. I distinctly remember the woodcock on the trigger guard because is was a nice touch. A mystery.......

???

It has to be the same gun. I remember the stock and I can't imagine another gun with the dolls head decapitated. I'm not sure how Dean saw two birds flying on the trigger guard but these might have been of a different gun.

I appreciate everyone's input. I don't think I'll press charges. It was eight or ten years ago. Too late for me to do anything now. I should have done something at the time, especially since the guy at the pawn shop was such and assh.........

I'll try to buy the gun back. We'll see how that goes.

Picture #19 is of the underside of the gun. Expand it so that the trigger guard bow is magnified and rotate it 180 degrees and you will see the two birds I spoke of.

If anyone is having trouble doing this I can post a picture of it cropped, rotated and expanded.






.

This might have been mentioned earlier in a different post and is a Captain Obvious point, but does the serial number, I think 89166 match up with records. I guess that only matters if you still have that tucked somewhere to be sure. But like you the coincidence of a gun like that with that rare of a condition on dolls head, just seems to be more than coincidental.

Btw no attorney but wonder it statute of limitations has expired with no charges filed if it was that long ago. I think that sort of thing varies from state to state, but that does not seem to be the path your pursuing.

Turning the cheek is tough but definitely commend you Tom on being able to handle that. That young man I sure hope did something positive with his life or made a positive impact somewhere with that free pass you gave him.

Dean the pictures for me are hard to tell anything. It looks more like a Rorschach test. But then again I can't tell a German W from an M.

Geez Dean, you are right. Those are flying birds on the trigger guard. I don’t know why I remembered them as a woodcock. It just shows that a memory can be faulty. But there is no doubt it is my gun even though I didn’t see a picture of the elk that Kevin liked so much.

The stock is just as I remembered it and especially the dents in the shield. I took a close look at the re-done checkering and saw the uneven depth on some of the diamonds. I remember exactly where they were and the pictures line up with my memory. They really annoyed me and I had planned to fix that along with the checkering on the butt. The restoration job was semi-professional at best.

If I manage to get the gun back, I’ll fix the checkering sloppiness and send the barrels to Brain. We’ll see.

Maybe Kevin would have liked the gun better if the elk was on the trigger and the birds were on the floor plate. We’ll never know.

Tom,
good luck getting the gun back, I never thought my inquiry would lead down this path. Having dealt with my kids "friends" in the past and a few of their miss deeds I can understand your decision, but none of them every took a Parker, you have a big heart.

I'm glad you posted that picture Keavin. I often wondered what happened to that gun. Despite being only a shooter, it was one of my favorites because of the engraving and because it was my go to gun for flooded timber duck shooting. I took a lot of woodducks with that gun. I tend to get emotionally attached to the guns I have taken a lot of game with. It wasn't a special gun but it was special to me. Thanks for your post Keavin.

It's unfortunate so much time has passed, but I would guess that if you mention the letters ATF to any self respecting gun/pawn shop that they would be very willing to cooperate. We're dealing with a felony here!!! I don't think it would be unreasonable to offer to buy the gun back at a reasonable price instead of getting the ATF involved, especially since you already own it.

I have seen a gun, stolen from me, on gun show tables twice in a couple of decades. I have not felt comfortable grabbing it and running the first time, or explaining my situation the second time and trying to work something out. The fellow who displayed the gun the second time is a friend, now deceased, but explaining the situation and expecting a good result would be asking too much. If I see the gun again, I may have a different attitude.