I never knew my Grandfather but have his DNA for which I'm grateful. The story regarding his A1 Special trap gun is that he used it very little but it was his favorite gun. He had a stroke and was unable to use it. It was his wish that the gun be given to a shooting friend who wouldn't be able to afford it upon his death. That wish was honored. My parents tried to track it down but it had been gone over 15 years by then and was never found.

I have been blessed with the AHE 20/28 set by a good friend who can no longer enjoy this fine gun as it was meant to be enjoyed. He knows I'll enjoy it and take good care of it and therefore made it available to me on a very gracious time table for payment.

I plan on following in my Grandfathers path with Gunner's Gun. A custom Parker purchased from a member here. It started out as a VH 20 but I had it restocked and engraved with pheasants, grouse, and woodcock. Gunner"s portrait in on the floor plate. He was my little buddy and I had his mom and there has never been a friend like him. He will go to a good friend who also has GSP's and a young son who is growing into being a hunter.

My Dad was a Parker guy for as long as I can remember and he usually had 5 - 10 of them on hand. I remember as a kid helping him clean his guns when he returned from a hunting trip. As I grew older and began hunting, he let me use certain Parkers of his and the others I was absolutely forbidden to touch. I consider myself lucky to have that introduction because I got to shoot/hunt with a few in different gauges and stock dimensions and learned what worked for me.

He passed in 2014 and I inherited his father's GH 12 ga and a second GH 12 ga, both of which I continue to hunt grouse and woodcock with. Last year I purchased my first Parker, a DH 12 gauge with 30" Damascus barrels which I will hunt turkeys with.

Being mostly a grouse and woodcock hunter I have in mind what I want for my next Parker and continue to search for it.

I should have mentioned in my earlier post the following additional history on the 16 ga vh that i inherited from my father. This 1927 vh was purchased by my grandfather in Boston. My grandfather and family lived in Dedham, Mass but also owned a farm of sorts in Bow,
New Hampshire. Some time later he was shooting hand trap on the farm with his 4 sons and while shooting it the recoil caused his hand to strike his nose. Must have held the gun loosely. Anyway, he went home to Dedham complaining of a headache. Went to bed and was unresponsive the next morning when my grandmother had called the family doctor to check him out. He was dead by then of apparently a cerebral hemmorage. Instead of a nose bleed out, it bled inward. So, i never met my grandfather but have his 16 to this day and consider it very special. My apologies for being long winded.

Bought my first Parker at age 44. My stepson who was and is involved in antiques knew a gentleman who had a12 ga. trojan and needed money as he was getting older. The trojan is in very good condition with the only flaw is lack of case colors on the receiver. He also said he had the original hang tag but had to look for it, unfortunetly he never found it. That started my passion for these great firearms and I managed to acquire two more. I paid $400 for that first Parker

[QUOTE=Rich Anderson;299481]I heard about Parkers long before I ever had one from my mother. My Grandfather was a double gun guy and Parker's were his favorite especially for shooting trap. I have a trophy he won at the Detroit gun club for breaking 200 straight from 16 yards to win the class C championship in 1936.
He shot both trap and skeet and I was lucky enough to find some old photos of him both hunting and target shooting with a PArker.

Mom said the Parkers were his favorite. The family story is that he bought an A1 special at Abercrombie & Fitch in Chicago while he was on his way to Mayo Clinic. He picked up the gun on his return. It would have been used as this was 1948 or so but Mom still remembers the argument over the $600 when there wasn't any discretionary funds.

Rich, the Chicago A&F store your Grandfather visited must have really been something special. At that time they were still doing business as Von Lengerke & Antoine at 9 N Wabash St in downtown Chicago. In fact, VL&A didn’t rebrand until 1959, more than 30 years after the A&F purchase. Such was the strength of the VL&A brand in the Midwest. What a sad day when A&F filed for bankruptcy in 1976. The Chicago store ran their going out of business sale in November 1977. Truly the end of an era. I wish I could have visited that store back in its heyday. Ed Muderlak wrote that he went in there as a kid and was in absolute awe of the place. Today, the old A&F storefront is a jewelry store.

[QUOTE=Garth Gustafson;299688]One of the best looking doubles I ever got to hold when I worked on the plantation was a A&F , ive never seen another one like it .

I assume you mean the Hartman's gave people "negative lessons" shall we say ?

I received my first one as a gift, a VH 12 ga with condition, upon graduation from college, aged 21.

I will say it is hard to get on the better side of a deal with them.

A late start for a double gun
 

I just turned 65, this past season while hunting pheasant's with a couple of good friends both of which are all in S x S shooters, one of them made a comment to me something like this, " You know Dan as much as you love the old guns of quality I'm surprised you don't have a S x S". That comment got me to thinking, he was right so within a couple of weeks I purchased my first Parker a CHE 30" 12 gauge. With all this virus crap going on I haven't been able to shoot any clay with it but I have been swinging it along the ceiling/wall lines all the time, not quite the same. Hope the Fall shoot in PA still happens, I would like to attend.