. Someone please stop me!![/QUOTE]



Sorry Craig, too late for that. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Bill;
Yes, Howard was a member of Loch Raven for many years and shot at National Capital back in the 60's. His shop was called Donahues Gun Specialties located in Towson. His work on the Kennedy affair drew national attention and he even appeared on Good Morning America. I'm sure if you googled his name and Kennedy you would get a hit.

Well my little hunt put me behind that morning, my ride to Logan had arrived and he was hurry up you got a flight to catch. That was a long day and a very rough flight to Keflavik Naval Air Station. We hit so much turbulence luggage was falling out of the over head bins on top of people. Arrow Air military charter, a very tired DC-8.. A year later I took Arrow Air home, two days later Arrow Air went down on takeoff in Goose Bay Labrador with 250 or so troops from the 101st Airborne, all hands lost.

thats a mighty nice gun pete has i hope it gets to hunt another 25 seasons..and yes pete takes a good picture...charlie

I've told this story before - in fact, I wrote about it "A Last Trojan Pheasant" in Parker Pages back around 2006 or so, but I can't find which issue it's in. Anyway, that tells the whole story plus a lot more.
I think it was around 1960 or '61 and I was thirteen and I was at my friend Dave's house and as we went down into his cellar one day I discovered this leather-trimmed canvas case tucked in behind the chimney. I pulled it out and opened it and took out a really nice Trojan 12 gauge with 28" barrels and the hang tags were still tied to the handle of the case. It had belonged to Dave's grandfather up in Saco, Maine. Long story made short - I was allowed to keep that Trojan at my house and use it whenever I wanted to until I moved to another town three years later. Then after high school graduation Dave took a job as a lineman out in Boise and brought the gun with him and I haven't seen that Trojan since the day I gave it back.

That three year period in my life instilled in me a desire to have my own Parker someday - a Parker I could really enjoy for grouse and woodcock in Vermont..... and now I can't even decide which one to bring with my when I go there, so I just bring a few along.

Interesting to read how many people started with a Trojan, since their introduction in 1912 to this day it seems they are a gateway for many to the higher grade guns. I still treasure mine as much or more than the others I have for the memories it brings, plus it has always been a good shooter.

Growing up I heard many stories of Grandpa's Parker, but he lived in Minnesota and we were out in Washington. Grandpa died in 1954 and his Parker went to my Uncle Howard. My Father was a Winchester rifle guy, but a Remington shotgun guy. He had a pair of AE-Grade Model 1894s in 12- and 16-gauge and a 12-gauge 30-inch full "Sportsman" autoloader he bought for $38 with his employee discount at Seattle Hardware in 1938. He always talked about how he would have loved to have bought the Parker that was in a Seattle Hardware window display, but that would have been $100 with his employee discount!! Tough when making $35 a week! In 1959 my Father succumbed to Jack O'Connor's short barrel writings and the "Sportsman" got whacked to 26-inch with a Poly-Choke. By 1960 the "Sportsman" was gone and he had a 12-gauge, 30-inch, 2-frame, VH-Grade, which remained his primary waterfowl gun until he quit hunting after the 1987-88 season when he was 80. According to the Ron Kirby letter I got on my Father's Parker it was shipped to Seattle Hardware on July 2, 1902, five years and one month before he was born.

Dave's Dad's Parker sounds like the more than a few William Wagner Parkers that Kevin McCormack and I have bought in the Washington, DC area. Sometimes these guns don't get far from "home".

My first Parker is a Trojan 20 gauge, but it is also still one of my nicer ones, being restored by Del Grego and still in good restored condition.

My Dad took my $130 first Parker to Del Grego's while I was in the Army in the late sixties. I wouldn't trade the relationship my Dad started with Larry Del Grego Sr. for my gun to be in original condition. My 28 gauge in Del Grego restored condition has more history behind it than if it were in original condition. This gun is pictured in Larry Sr's hands in Kevin McCormack's article in DGJ about the Del Gregos. I have been shooting that gun for 54 years and it still has the early Del Grego colors in about 98% condition.