Archibald Rutledge
 

Several times in the past I've read here or there that Mr. Rutledge owned several Parkers . But so far I've been unable to get any idea what grades and gauges of Parker's he may have had .

Anybody got any insight or know where I can look ?

That is a good question. I have a bunch of his books and while Parker is mentioned, no grade is mentioned. I know his students at Mercersburg Academy got one for him.

One of these years before I leave this place I wanna get down in Rutledges area and plow a whitetail with a Parker . Preferably shooting it in front of a man/dog drive . But I can also make do shooting one with a Parker from a treestand if push comes to shove .I do not care if the deer is a doe , button , spike or the Great War Horse Buck of South Carolina .

In what I think is Rutledge's classic photo of him sitting on a bench with a whitetail rack beside him , a shotgun across his lap , LL BEan Maine Hunting Shoes on and one of his hounds by his side you cannot see enough of the gun to ascertain the manufacturer .

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...psc41b1305.jpg

Still love that picture !

There was actually a relation of Rutledge that posted on here a few times in the past. Seemed like an interesting guy but he only asked a few questions then disappeared.

You would think somewhere there was something he'd written down about his collection/accumulation .

The gentleman said there were still some of his guns in the family. Seems like he had some Parker but not one that actually belonged to Rutledge.

DLH

All Parkers found around my house after my death will be my guns and I will have shot them, most of them at game.

Rutledge
 

I believe this is a staged picture. He has a turkey calling box in his hand but is in the open. Not the way to hunt turkeys. The shotgun he is holding looks very much like a Parker to me. Cheers, Tom

That's good and fine .

But it adds not a thing to my original question .

And if you wanna be technical about it , "after your death" they will be someone else's !

Craig - I dunno, but I'm getting tired of hearing about the 250 ( or whatever) deer you have "plowed/smoked/crushed" with a collection of non-Parker guns. If you're going to burn up our pixels, how about joining the PGCA, and dialing down the rhetoric?

I seem to remember reading somewhere he shot one or two Parkers so much that they were unfixable . Now I realize "unfixable" is a relative term with most folks . I assume what was meant by that was he shot them loose and at the time no one was inclined to shall we say "tighten them back up" .

The barrels on one of his Parker's blew out. He hunted it pretty hard.

I expect something like an obstruction, i doubt you can shoot enough through a barrel in several lifetimes to thin a barrel to the danger point

(even if we cannot agree in a score of threads what that danger point is :corn: )

He supposedly made box style turkey calls and sold them mail order. I believe there's a photo of one that's attributed to him in one of the call collectors books.

bet one of those box calls would be hard to come by nowadays..charlie

He did make calls and I have a book with a picture of one in it. That would be a real collector's item

I have collected turkey calls for many years and have only seen one of his box calls. They are rare and very collectible. The call he is holding in the photo is his call.