Guess I should step in here and have a say. As most of you guys know I have a new unfired VHE skeet gun in the box that I care for. And that's what my job is, to care for it for the next caretaker. A gun unfired or in mint condition needs to be preserved to show others what real case colors look like (not what they think they should look like).... At one of the annual meetings the display theme was 16 ga Parkers Jimmy Hall's A 1 16 ga took first place (as it should have) and a lowly VHE skeet gun that was new in the box took second due to it's condition. All I am saying is, if you have a gem like that you are only a caretaker of it and you owe it to future generations to keep it in the condition that you found it. Just my two cents but you can find a gun in 80% to 90% condition if you want to use it and fire it but you only find a 100% gun once. Eric

As more and more people jump on to the "Shoot it! That's what it was made for." bandwagon fewer and fewer 100% guns will remain. (They are already as scarce as hen's teeth.) It is an unspoken trust when we buy such a gun to be its custodian only and to make sure it remains 100%.

I agree with Eric, Dean, and much as I hate to say it, Rich too. A new, unfired gun in the condition it was dispatched from Meriden is a benchmark to which many, including future collectors, can look to as a guide. To say it was made to be shot so go and shoot it is precisely what I would have said 50 years ago, when I began to accumulate guns. I never had an opportunity to see something made by a company, long, long gone, with a reputation such as the Charles Parker Company has, in precisely the condition it was in, as handled by the final inspector. I have more than a dozen pieces in the same configuration as this gun, and they are most likely the same in feel, and performance. A 1933 $20 gold double eagle was minted to be spent; The Flying Jenny 24 cent airmail stamp had the center plate mixed up, and the plane got downsideup, but it was made to be licked and stuck to a letter. If you're stupid enough to take a gun like this out and shoot it, you're gonna go mail Aunt Matilda a letter with the $825,000 airmail stamp, then go buy a burrito and a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon with your twenty bucks.

I would not shoot it!!

I don't have a dog in this fight. I've never owned and never will own a gun like that. But if my rich uncle in the poorhouse was to die and leave me one in similar condition, I know I wouldn't shoot it.

Not only do they not make them anymore, they didn't make many that got to here in that condition.

I know it is a "bitch" to own a gun that you can't shoot, but, when you get to show it to others for comparision or just for knowledge, it's worth it. I know a couple of years ago, after I showed the skeet gun at the annual meeting, a man contacted me about selling the gun, after talking to him I found out the only reason he wanted to buy the gun was to shoot it and tell his buddy's he was the first to shoot it.......:cuss: As you know I turned the offer down. It's hard but when you show it to someone that has never seen an original gun it makes up for it.. Eric

Eldon, There was an AAHE 20 ga. attic find in the last Julia's auction!

I personally would shoot it if it were mine, but I understand the other side of the argument. My view is that nothing lasts for ever that stamp, that double eagle gold coin, and this mint parker will not be around forever. This gun is 85 years old what is that to the grand scheme of things. Will this gun be in this condition in 100 years or even 50 most likely not no matter what you do. Even our most treasured possessions like the declaration of independence and the Mona Lisa with all the money spent to preserve them continue to degrade. It is inevitable.
That being said I keep coming back to this tread to stare at this gun. The checkering especially is amazing.

From a monetary perspective you make an excellent point. If the value is deminished from shooting it you would be stupid to shoot it. I was not thinking in terms of money.

Eldon, If you appreciate the condition of the checkering, and the opportunity to come back a few times to look at it, it seems incongruous that you can't appreciate that I, and the others before me kept it this way. If I took your position, went out and shot it because "that's what it was made for" it would rapidly become just another 30" VH, and you, and all the Eldon Goddards after you wouldn't be able to be 'amazed'.
I have already been offered the chance to make a very significant profit, so that part of my thought process in deciding to buy it has been validated. I seriously doubt If I went out with a run of the mill VH and knocked down a pheasant, or busted a clay pigeon, it would feel any different than if I did the same with this gun. Eighty five years is very relative. The gun one serial number before, or after this one may be at, or beyond it's useful life. This one is still new. Given the same care for the next 85 years that it got for the last, it will still be new. Given that there are many here who feel as I do, and a few others who have PM'd me wanting it, I know that same process could go on indefinitely. Yes, it can be restored to new later on, and many times over, but then what gun can't be? They're just not the same anymore.
I may not keep the gun forever, but I get to choose who gets it next and that sure beats the joy of cash in the bank any day.