Closet DH
 

A very big thank you to one and all for your compliments and thoughtful discussion and great pictures of other beautiful guns.

I turned the trigger guard. The ser # is stamped deeply also there is an "R" stamped sideways next to it.

Gary Cripps

I think you are Bruce. It's in the shape of the point and in the coverage of the checkering. You even show what it should look like and the difference is quite obvious.

For one thing - note that the checkered area of the grip curls back in under the trigger guard tang and comes much closer to the pistol grip cap. There are other, more subtle, differences too.

Setterman's pictures show the difference even better.

Well I guess you and Dave Noreen are right and I am wrong, but its the Cripps new photos showing the R that are determinative to me.

I haven't seen all the guns from the 1890's but I have seen variances in checkering and drop points within the same grade. I don't have enough photos to illustrate my point but I have a bunch of drop point guns and no two are exactly the same.

We ran into some of the same issues a while back where somebody was claiming that the thumb groove is never angled downwardly on the older Parkers, and I posted photos of the John Browning gun and a top lever hammer gun that had those features. To me , its always best to just pull the TG, but you are dead on correct here.

I have a GH from 1899 with a stamp under the trigger guard with the "R". I had always assumed the stock was a Remington replacement.

Bruce, I too, have seen 'exceptions to the rule' but not so many all on the same stock.


This is the best way I can describe the shape of the points.

Parker Bros. points are more "ovate" while the later Remington points are more "rhomboidal"



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Forget it Jay you are not getting mine....:rolleyes: Did I tell you it was originally a 16ga sent back to Parker for the 20 ga barrels (yes I have the 16 ga barrels too:) ) Sorry Jay couldn't resist.:corn: Eric

I agree with Chris T. The gun was carried by the wood on the foreend a lot more than the right hand gripped it to shoot at something. Pushing fences down, getting out of a wagon with it etc would wear the foreend down faster. I have seen it on several of mine.

Damn Eric, you're a cold hartless bast**d!:cuss::cuss::cuss:

At least you could thank me for that beautiful 10ga in your collection!:cuss::cuss::cuss:

This is a great discussion. But just to interject a few thoughts here. These guns were machine made and hand finished. We know there were templates for drop points and such. Stocks were turned from blanks from a master etc.But they were hand finished guns and with that there has to be some "artistic license". Suppose the checkerer overran a couple of lines..change the pattern slightly..all fixed. Suppose a drop point chipped...fix it. Suppose the nose of the comb didn't come out quite right...make it a little different. These great craftsman were human after all and to think that errors were not made means we are putting these people on another plane. I would think that the final inspector would have the final say whether the gun went into the finished rack or went back for rework. After all we are talking about frugal Yankees here and these guns were not machine made 870's.

I'm not implying this is what happened but I thought it would be worth some thought.

:):):):)

And yes Thank you Jay for the 10 ga contact information... That I do mean. Eric