Parker trap Shooter?
 

I hope someone out there may be able to identify this man with what appears to be a Parker SBT gun. I found this a few years back at a flea Market here in New Jersey. It is glued to a piece of cardboard so I cannot find any info on the reverse side http://parkerguns.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1265124336

Paul,Great picture! Thanks for posting it. Maybe one of our guys will know who this gentleman is I hope!

Paul, I'm going to leave a bunch of pictures of me with Parker single traps behind when I go. You and Dave should do the same. The guys sixty years from now will have a hard time finding our pictures in Trap and Field magazine.

You might have a good chance of identification if you posted on trapshooters.com.

Anyone know when the Morgan adjustable pad was introduced? It may help in dating the picture. Hated that pad!

Is the Gent from The "Garden State"??
 

I love a good "detective op"-- I have Jimmie Robinson's ATA record book with fotos and names-- first off- just because the foto was found in a NJ flea market does NOT mean 100% the gent in the picture with the Parker SBT was from NJ, or even shot there.

The query about the first year for the (UGH) Morgan adjustable pad gizmo would help- my "WAG" here tells me maybe pre-WW11 times, but that's a guess of course.

I think many of us who have been in the gunning world for years have looked back and kicked ourselves for the mistake(s) we have made, or the chances over-looked in our quest for the "Holy Grail" of scattergundom.

I was given a Parker SBT with 34" barrel- a neighbor who had no children, I used to mow their lawn, shovel the sidewalks in Winter-he had the barrel rechoked by the late Herb Orre, and a Morgan pad installed, God knows why. Later, before it came to me, he also had a release trigger installed. He was a machinst, like my family male members, and never threw anything out, so he had kept the original Parker trigger and the red recoil pad. He was a tall gentleman with a long reach, I believe he removed the factory pad and set the Morgan gizmo on the butt without cutting off any of the wood- So, except for the rechoking, it could have been "returned to normal" somewhat, but I was in my 30's, didn't know any of that, and much preferred shooting barn pigeons on area dairy farms with Model 12's--

Soooo- I took it up to Vandalia in August, met Bill Jaqua, ended up with a Model 12 Trap old milled rib made in 1948- unaltered, and some cash and Bill had the Parker-and yes, the original pad and trigger were included in the deal.

I am NOT a clays man, but somehow I have sensed that many serious Trapshooters are prone to "tinker" with their clays shotguns in the hopes of gaining a higher average score. Gene Hill used to write about this a great deal.:rolleyes:

Francis,

Boy would I like to have a release trigger for my SC! I switched to shooting left handed many years ago but couldn't get my left finger to pull the trigger reliably but it works just fine using a release. Somebody years ago on the Parker forum said he had release trigger parts but I never heard back from him. I doubt that I would have it installed even if the parts were available. I would assume the trigger housing and hammers would have to be modified some what. Did yours have a separate trigger floor plate?

Bill,You got that right.You won't be finding me in Trap and Field...:) By the way is there a site where you can look up trap shooters of old? I am still trying to find stuff on H. H. Ganson. Unfortunatly I don't know what the H stands for.

Don't worry about looking "Back in the day" for this guy in the picture. There were no baseball caps at trapshoots before the war, maybe not until the fifties.

Dave, you either have to have the books or you have to call the Hall of Fame Museum. They don't always find every name you ask for, but it's worth a shot.

"You can always look it up in the book somewheres"--
 

Oh wait- that was Casey "Stinky" Stengel 's favorite reply when he was managing the "Bronx Bombers" in another era- Dave, I have the 1974 ATA book "The Grand- a history of Trapshooting" by Jimmy Robinson and Jim Nichols published at Vandalia 1974- if you know the state where this gentleman shot his registered targets, I might find him in that book- worth a shot--

Chuck--The man who willed me his "modified" Parker SBT was a Class AA shot, so many shots fired in his era- no era protection most likely-. It's been years, but I think he had gunsmith Herb Orre install the release trigger, and it was on a separate floor plate- the original and the machine screws and also the solid red pad were in a cigar box that came with the shotgun when it came into my custody- I tried to get that infernal Morgan pad set for me- I also had to get used to the release trigger, back then I didn't know enough to keep it and have the original pull trigger re-installed, ditto the factory red pad.

The M12 I obtained in trade for it had a std. buttstock- it is a Pigeon Grade with the older milled rib and the "duck-billed" extension and the sandblasted receiver- it is no Parker of course, but it must have been a special order as it has a 30" Imp. Mod. choked barrel instead of the usual Full choke.

I am not a trapshot, but for many years I used it for Pass shooting Canada Geese near refuges in SW lower MI- until I obtained my two M12 3" Magnum Heavy Duck Guns. It is "retired" more or less, but like all my Winchesters- Not For Sale (not that I would even think of trying a stunt like that here)--:duck:

Francis,I am thinking a Connecticut shooter

OK, I'm forced to do it. My mug shot from Trap and Field August 2004. Twelfth place out of over 2k shooters in the Penna Handicap Championship. Missed 2 in a row from my favorite post or I would have been shooting for the championship. As it was, I had to go 4 extra rounds to just get twelfth place.:banghead:

Chuck finishing 12th out of 2000 is incredibly good shooting. My greatest claim to fame was at the 1995 Maine State Shoot where I broke 667 out 700 targets (300 singles, 200 Handicap, 200 doubles) over 3 days and won the High Overall Average which is an "Open" trophy to all shooters attending. There were five shooters tied with 666 and I am glad I did not know that when I called pull for target 700. They didn't even put my picture in Trap & Field :crying:

Good shooting boy's!

October 1997 Trap & Field Magazine.

1997 NH State Shoot; Handicap Runner-Up, Class AA All-Around, Member of 5 man winning state team (NH).

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...StateShoot.jpg

Nice shooting Pete.

....My, you looked so young back then :duck:

Didn't we all.....:biglaugh: Good shootin Pete

LOL! Ya that was back when I had a bit more hair (and yours probably had some color, oh wait white is a color :rotf:)

I shot a straight grip GH I got from Scott Kittredge in the singles on the preliminary day of the 2007 Maine State. Using a Parker double in an ATA shoot brought a lot of stares and questions. I didn't win anything but broke a 95 and felt good about that as I had not shot registered in several years prior.

Chuck, that might have been me. I still have the Parker sbt with the release trigger in it. I thought that I would hate it but after shooting it for a while, I loved it. It is the best release trigger that I have. I shoot alot of different trap guns with release triggers now and this one is my favorite. Our club has a spring league and a fall league that are pretty large and I have been lucky enough to finish in the top three over the past three years in both leagues with this gun. I am leaving the release in until the wife sells it after I am gone. Than hopefully it find someone who loves it as much as I did.

Pete,

That's a great High Overall score, congratulations and shooting a 95 with a GH configured as a field gun, I assume, is something to be proud of too.

Frank,

Yes it was you, I think at the time your sign in name was FHalz or something similar. I don't think most people realize how much more natural it is to shoot a release trigger than a pull trigger once your used to it. Think of it as relaxing your muscles instead of contracting and tightening your muscles when you want the gun to go off. The problem is that for most people, trying to switch back to a pull trigger is not easy. The brain needs to be retrained, at least for me it does.

Frank, have you been able to shoot pull triggers without any problems?

Thank you Chuck. That was quite a shoot back in '95 and the field of people I bested that day included Bill Anzaldi, Phil Wright, Mike Blaisdell and Cal Stinson (All-Americans) and many other quite capable shooters. Essentially I managed to shoot my lifetime best on three consecutive days. I have always said to win anything at a state shoot you have to have your best day(s) of the year and shoot well above one's average.

The GH is not that much of a handicap on the trap field. It was built for pigeons or trap, straight grip, full comb, 2" drop, 30" F/F, splinter forend double triggers. It was ordered in 1915 and requested to shoot full with both barrels with 1 1/4 ounce 7.5's (I am guessing pigeons were the intended target). The first time Scott let me shoot it I broke a 25 on the trap field and I told him if he ever sold it I wanted to be asked first. I very glad he remembered that 4 years ago. It's a great gun that Scott shot trap very well with too but now he is terrorizing the trap fields with his 10's :-)

Pete, I went through high school with Billy Anzaldi and never knew he shot... maybe way back then he didn't shoot, who knows....

...Okay Dave, have at it :corn:

Dean, back in the 70's Remington had a team of five shooters shoot a bunch of thrown wooden blocks, 100,000 I think and they only missed some small number of them. It was to show the reliability of the Nylon 66 .22 rifle. I am pretty sure Bill Anzaldi was part of that five man team.

Pete and Dean,

Bill Anzaldi is currently the East Zone ATA vice president and Phil Wright is a past ATA president. Both along with Mike Blaisdell are excellent shooters and frequent Elysburg for the big east zone shoots. Pete, have you ever shot at Elysburg and are you planning on making the Northeast SxS shoot in June of this year?

Tom Frye shot wood with Nylon 66s also.

Billy graduated Reading HS in '65 I believe and I graduated in '66. If he shot that well in the 70's he must have been doing it in the sixties as well.

Chuck, I know both Phil and Mike pretty well and of course Phil has been involved with running ATA shooting in NH for a long time. I have not been to any ATA shoots in PA but know that they are BIG events. I went to Hidden Hollow in PA in '08 and '09 for the Northeast Sideby event. I had fun last year, '08 was pretty much a washout. I hope to go again this year.

Thanks for the replies gents! I was hoping maybe someone would recognize the Shooter in the pic. I was digging in my paperwork for an old 1939 catalog from V.L&A in Chicago that I remember had an add for the Morgan Adjustable pad but could not find it. the search continues. Paul

Paul, I've seen that trapshooter's face somewhere before but I just can't place it.
I'll let you know if it comes to me.
Dean

Morgan claims they have been making the pad for "more than a half century". Believe it or not, 1960 was a half century ago. I figured the picture was not old because of the baseball cap.

I shoot alot of sporting clays with a Browning and I have not had a problem yet. I would love to try a double release to see how that is. I totally agree about how just relaxing the hand is sooooo much better. Thanks, Frank

That's a lie :shock:

Bill I agree with you the pic appears to have a late 40's early 50's tone. How are you making out in the snow down there. Still got power?
Dean I got got the same feeling when I first looked at the picture. The face looked familiar like I had seen it in an old shooting Magazines. Paul